Hidden
by Lilianne Chase
Summary: AU: Annabeth is invisible, her classmates don't know she exists, her older sister is a mess, and with her 5.0 GPA and skipping two grades she's rather focus on work. Percy is popular, he's athletic, hot, and nice to everyone, but all he cares about these days is his mom getting better. Maybe opposites aren't so opposite really, and the most beautiful things are the hidden ones.
1. Hi I'm Not Here

**Hi! I'm Lili and welcome to my first fanfiction! Thanks for clicking on my story! Hopefully you like it! Remember this is an AU.**

**I do not own PJO but I wish I did!**

**ANNABETH CHASE**

I'm not one for talking about myself, I prefer deferring the attention to others, so much so that I've become a pro at _not _getting noticed. Over 98% of Goode High's student body is unaware that "Annabeth Chase" goes to their school. The other two percent have been partnered up with me for group projects or something...and none of them can probably remember what I look like, my name is just a faint memory in their mind.

Don't think I'm pitying myself, I like how it is, I know if I was noticed it would be for being a nerd. So what if I'm a 15 year old senior who skipped a few grades? Who cares that the worst Report Card I ever got had a 99% in 3rd Grade Social Studies? No one would think it's cool that I'm a tech supervisor for Google in my free time. Why does it matter that I've finished 3 years of college online with over 80 full-ride scholarship offers to every top college in America? Nobody wants to know that I designed the updates on the Empire State Building for my mother. This is why it's better to be "invisible" at this place. At least I'm not bullied like Leo Valdez (a scrawny ADHD sophomore) or "shunned" by the popular girls like Thalia Grace (a punk-goth senior) and Clarisse LaRue (a horrible bully who got held back in 6th grade). I'm just...not here. It's better this way.

I know everyone's name in this school, it took 40 seconds flipping through the yearbook with my eidetic memory to figure it out. Also when your time isn't occupied with hours of chatting and acting like you matter you learn a lot. I could write stories on pretty much anyone in this school.

For example Grover Underwood has a muscle defect in his legs that makes him need crutches. He cares way too much about the environment, and so does his crush/obsession Juniper Groves. He and the all-famous Percy Jackson used to be best buddies in middle school until (contrary to popular belief) Grover thought Percy would bring him down on the social scale...he was wrong. He also knew Thalia Grace and Luke Castellan when they were younger, they were really tight till Luke told him he was a loser and took his crutches. He loves goats and bleats perfectly. The only thing he loves more than goats is an enchilada...I could go on for hours about one kid.

No, I'm not a stalker, I just notice everything instead of wasting my time on idiotic things like friends and fun.

My own family forgets I exist most of the time too.

"BOBBY AND MATTHEW WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT LEAVING YOUR LEGOS ON THE HALLWAY FLOOR?" My dad hollered in the direction of the stairs where, at 7:45 AM (15 minutes till school), my step brothers were still most likely sleeping. I attempted to ask my father if he was OK, I know that stepping on legos was horribly painful, but he ignored me and marched upstairs. I quickly bent down to gather the legos and dropped them in their appropriate basket.

I had on my signature clothes; hand-me-down jeans from my older half-brother Malcom that were way too big and baggy for me. I had to hammer a hole to make an old belt of my step-mother's fit around my waist to hold up the jeans. My favorite sweater was (even though it's itchy beyond belief) a brown wool top with sleeves 8 inches too long and tucked in to my jeans. I have to tuck it in so it doesn't look like a boy's sweater which would gather attention at school (people would think I've got a boyfriend or something). I wore leather-loafer-flat shoes that really could win an ugly-shoe award. My blonde curly hair (that really needs a cut, it's down to mid-back) was in a weird-librarian bun thing so that no one could compliment my hair. I wear no makeup, but just giant, nerd glasses that have a teeny tint so no one can see my eye color. They're grey, some argue they're silver, but they're grey, boring old flat grey...like me. My backpack has seen better days, I'm sure when Malcom got it that it was a really cool yellow messenger bag, but after years of use it's more of a murky brown with water stains, none of the zippers work which means my usual number of 23 books fall out...a lot. And the strap has all his old "VOTE WORLEY FOR CLASS PRESIDENT" (his last name is Worley) pins on it that stab me randomly as I wear it, and I can't take them off, they're the only reason the strap is still a strap.

My dad marched up the stairs to yell at the boys...not gonna lie, I'm jealous, he hasn't yelled at me, talked to me, or acknowledged my existence in 3 weeks and 5 days. Almost a record. I walked into the kitchen to find Susan, my step-mom, sitting at a table set for 5, every plate had bacon and eggs. Wait, set for 5? My dad, Susan, Bobby, Matthew...and me? She never remembers to cook for me, nonetheless set me a place at the table, I got nervous. I was busy staring at the little extra chair that had to be for me when the twins came running through the opening, Bobby missing pants and Matthew missing a shirt...typical. They launched themselves at their plates, Susan smiling at their antics. My father walked in a few moments later, face still red from yelling. Susan winked at him and pulled out his chair for him.

"Morning boys." She said politely, primly slicing her eggs.

"Mornin'" they all replied, mouths full. I still looked at the chair that was left empty, thinking about moving towards it but my hope-bubble was burst a few moment's later when a fifth voice spoke from behind me.

"Why the heck is everyone up before noon? God you guys are so weird." My step-sister groaned. **[So I'm flipping the family tree of PJO around a bit, if you're confused I'll explain in the A/N at the bottom of this chapter] **I turned to see the one and only Rachel Elizabeth Dare standing in the hall, her dyed red hair a pile of frizz, glitter, and hairspray flying everywhere. Her hot pink lipstick was running in drool-lines across the side of her face from the corner of her mouth. Her mascara proved she had been crying at some point (along with the caked on makeup in tear trails on her cheeks). Her light green eyes were bloodshot and tired looking as they glared at the family.

"Mooooooorrrrnnnnniiiinnnnnggggg Red!" The twins mocked her, not wondering why she wasn't at college four hours away.

"Shut up twerps." She snapped and I got a full scent of alcohol and vomit on her breath. Fighting back the urge to gag I turned away to leave for school, obviously the extra chair was for Rachel. I successfully evacuated the kitchen and grabbed my backpack from my hook on the wall. As I was about to turn the handle I heard Rachel behind me.

"You're wearing that?" I got the same throat constricting feeling I always get when someone talks to me.

"Yes." I managed to say, sounding sufficiently annoyed. She glared at me but it wasn't scary, she was too hungover to be able to hurt me or anything.

"Got a boyfriend yet loser?" She growled, I could tell she just wanted an argument, that's Rachel's forte, getting people to lose it. She drinks to tick the police off, parties to get Susan mad, calls my dad (no not hers, he's in California) to bail her out of jail, sleeps around to ruin her boyfriend, and gets horrible grades to make her real dad get mad. It's like she has a pathological fear of making someone happy...or she just wants attention, but that's not the Rachel I know. I miss artist Rachel.

"No, you keep a boyfriend for more than a week yet?" I retorted, removing old Rachel with her paintbrushes from my mind. She glared again, stepping closer. I became worried, if we argued then Susan and dad would notice me for the first time in weeks and it would be for fighting.

"Whatever." She snarled and turned around, but a little too fast because she vomited all over Susan's pretty carpet. I couldn't stop myself, I helped hold her hair back. I hate watching anyone suffer. (Okay, I could manage watching some of the mean kids at school suffer a teeny bit.)

"Oh my Go-" Susan said from the hall, cut off from her screeching by the smell of alcohol induced vomit on her "Persian carpet" that's supposedly very expensive. Rachel stood up, showing that she's taller than me even if she's barefoot.

"Sorry mom." Rachel said sheepishly, but she had a smirk pulling at her mouth. Once again, she likes making people mad. Normally I have to clean things like this up but I didn't have time.

"Out! Before you do it again!" Susan snapped, pointing towards the bathroom. I slipped out before she could tell me to clean it.

I don't have a car. Or a ride. And given my late status, a viable reason to be 20 minutes late. So I ran. Let me tell you, running in heavy, too long, baggy jeans is _not _fun nor easy. My books and papers fell 6 times on my way and my librarian-bun looked like a rat's nest. But I made it to school with one minute to spare. I fixed my hair and sweater and slipped into the crowded hall, blending into the beige cement walls and the bright orange lockers. My locker was conveniently placed next to a trash can...meaning most-definitely-not-NBA-stars aimed their disgusting garbage at the receptacle but ended up hitting me, which is always a good way to start your morning. Talk quieted down in the hallway as _they _walked in, fashionably late, as usual. The populars.

No offense to any of you popular people out there reading this, but these girls are the most horrible, stereotypical, life-ruining populars you've ever met. They've learned how to act by watching overly-dramatized popular girls on TV and movies. On Wednesdays they wear _purple. _Who does that?

The evil senior Drew Tankana was in the lead, perfect hair (to-the-shoulder glossy black), perfect skin (a porcelain pale with zero blemishes), perfect body (she's 5'10 _without_ her stilettos and her curves were to die for), and now thanks to her plastic-surgeon dad - a perfect face. Yay. She gets C's and D's for grades but somehow in classes with a male teacher she gets top marks so she'll graduate this year. She dumped her boyfriend yesterday so I'm sure she's planning to ask Percy Jackson out given her extensive amounts of makeup. Her "minions" as I like to call them, were following in formation.

Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano (to Drew's immediate left) runs this school, she's Student Council President, Jason Grace's girlfriend, a top Senior class student, Captain of Varsity Volleyball and girl's basketball, and of course, gorgeous. She's really tan, with thick black hair, and demanding brown eyes. She's even taller than Drew (6'1") in her shoes... She's more buff than curvy or skinny, but it works on her. She used to go to another rival school and she still is like their queen, at football games (not that I've been to one) she can get them to cheer for Goode instead of their own school.

Piper McLean (behind Reyna), a fairly smart Junior, is only popular because her dad is Tristan McLean, yes _the _Tristan McLean. She's beyond pretty (of course) and used to be bullied till they learned they could meet Hollywood stars via her, so her life went a complete 180 degrees and the next day she was prettier than before and no longer a tomboy. According to Zoë she's dating a really famous 17 year old actor but that's probably not true.

Silena Beauregard (Drew's right) is most definitely the prettiest girl in the pack (but don't tell Drew that), and the nicest, she's super sweet to everyone and I think she's only in the group because Drew is her half sister. She's a Junior and dating a Senior named Charles "Charlie" Beckendorf, they're really cute...I ship them. She's way too girly for her own good but that's okay, at least she knows it.

Zoë Nightshade (behind Silena) totally hates guys, and to prove it she dates every one of Drew's leftovers. I don't get it either. She's way too proper but she's pretty and relatively dumb so she's popular...logic in this school though. Currently she's dating the guy Drew dumped yesterday, Will Solace who's following her like a puppy. They're both Juniors.

Calypso Atlas (behind Piper) falls in love with any guy who is fairly hot and talks to her, meaning she's an emotional wreck. She's really traditional and pretty, but not so nice to other girls or guys who aren't good-looking. She's a Sophomore but got held back in Kindergarten for having so many tantrums she learned nothing. She should be a Junior but oh well, I should be a Sophomore and I'm a Senior so I won't judge.

And finally Bianca Di Angelo (behind Zoë), she has a little brother who's a Freshman (she's a Junior), and originally they were best buds but then she decided she cared more about her own life and joined the popular girls (at their invitation of course) and her brother is now alone in school, he wears dark colors and has long (like shoulder length, black hair. I don't think he's mad at her but she most definitely could care less about Nico's High School troubles.

I used to like it when the populars walked by last year, because Rachel was the original Drew and given we're step-siblings we had an agreement, I get her out of detentions (the principal _loves _me), and she distracts attention from me and never talks to me in school, unless it's secretive. Now there's nothing protecting me from public humiliation when the 7 queens of the school go strutting through.

"Will?" Zoë said sweetly, not looking at her boyfriend. "Go get my Language books please." She fluttered her fake eyelashes at him and he nodded confusedly, stumbling to find her locker. Sadly, Drew's locker is right across the hallway from mine so they stopped way too close. I snuck out of there as Drew said something about "Snagging that hottie Jackson today."

**Hehe! There you have it, Chapter One, I know it's super boring and Annabeth is quite OOC, but that's likely to happen in an AU! Okay I'm sure you're a bit confused on the whole Annabeth's family thing. So I'll attempt to explain. Malcom is the oldest, he's Annabeth's half brother (Athena is their mom, they never lived together (they both live with their dad's, Athena doesn't have time for them), he's 21, and works at his mom's company, he and Annabeth get along really well. Rachel is her step sister, Susan had her with her ex husband (supremely rich guy) so Annabeth is not related to her by blood but she knows her well. Bobby and Matthew are pretty self explanatory. **

**If you have any questions, comments, or constructive criticism then Review please! The next chapter should be up fairly soon with some Percy! Yay! So yep, please you know, review, favorite, follow if you liked it! Bye!**


	2. Momma's Boy

**Hi guys! THANK YOU SO MUCH IF YOU REVIEWED FAVORITED OR FOLLOWED I'M SO HAPPY THANK YOU!**

**I'll just get straight to it, I don't own the characters! **

**Happy Reading!**

**ANNABETH POV**

"Hello class." Mr. Blofis (the English teacher) said as we stepped into the most banal classroom in Goode, normally his wife decorated it for him but she's really sick in the hospital so the walls go bare. Mr. Blofis looks like he's aged 10 years in 4 weeks and he acts like she's already died.

I felt sorry for him so I grade all his papers for him and make his lesson plans. Today I planned we got work time on our essays on some book I read years ago. I've already finished the essay but I really wanted some time to work on my architecture. "You have work time today. Please keep it quiet." He said, rubbing his temples and sitting at his desk.

We worked for about 15 minutes before the first disruption. The classroom door flew open, making an echoing bang as it hit the file cabinets. "PAUL!" the all-famous Percy Jackson yelled from the doorway. I knew Mr. Blofis was Percy Jackson's step-dad but it was a weird thought, they're so different.

Mr. Blofis is a mild-mannered, boring man, if he was a color he'd be beige, while Percy would be exotic sea-green or bright blue. Paul looked up at him with a bored expression, his step-son groaned loudly and strode into the room so he could talk to Mr. Blofis quietly.

All the girls (except me, I slunk down) straightened up so Percy could see them, he paid no attention, and as he turned around to face Mr. Blofis the girls seemed to be undressing him with their eyes.

I can only blame them a little bit...I mean Theo James and Zac Efron don't hold a candle to Percy Jackson, he's out of every league known to man I think.

He's got a mess of black hair that looks permanently ruffled, like those beach models in magazines, except better somehow. He has a deep sun-tan that doesn't fade so he's always glowing (not like a pregnant lady), just like an aura of hot-godliness. I cannot believe I just said that.

His teeth are pearly which is shocking given he can get an entire pizza in his endless stomach within 6 minutes. Somehow his endless stomach fits in between his 8-pack and muscular back, and wearing that white "Imagine Dragons" t-shirt you could actually see his muscled torso, literally 6 of the 8 girls were drooling.

He had his black leather jacket in his left hand and his flip-phone in the right (the only popular without an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy whatever). His jeans had a hole on the left knee (not pre-ripped, he tore them after football practice I think).

He towered over Mr. Blofis who's 5'7"...Percy is 6'4". He had on black converse...I really want some converse but then people might notice them.

Of course none of that, body, hair, outfit, anything, compared to his eyes. Sea green, like you can see the ocean through them, I've never been close enough to him but I've heard it looks like there's little flecks of gold in his eyes too. Long, descriptive, beautiful story short, they're amazing.

"Okay class um I've gotta go." Mr. Blofis stood up hastily and rushed to grab his tan coat. We all looked bewildered, Percy shrugged on his leather jacket and grabbed Mr. Blofis' car keys.

"But who's in charge?" Octavian, the single most annoying and horrible guy you've ever met, asked, obviously volunteering himself.

"Uh," he looked at me, I shook my head vigorously and looked down, hoping Percy and no one else saw. "Jason is." Jason Grace (one of Percy's best friends) looked at Mr. Blofis with wide blue eyes, but nodded solemnly.

Mr. Blofis looked back up at me and kind of jabbed his head towards the door, an obvious "_Go-Out-There-With-Me-Please" _gesture. I sucked in a breath, I'd have to walk through the entire class (I sit in the back), and then stand in the hall with Perseus Jackson. No. I pretended I didn't see him.

"I'll pull your car around." Percy said to him and left, jogging. Mr. Blofis waved him off.

"You kids can sit wherever you want." Mr. Blofis said and there was chaos as everyone got up. I internally smiled at his wit, and quickly joined the crowd, got to the front, and slipped out before anyone noticed. "Be good! Remember Jason is in charge and if you do _anything _wrong it's a 40 minute detention!" He said to the students who were settling down. We were both in the hall.

"Is everything okay Mr. Blofis?" I asked. I don't mind talking to teachers all that much. He shook his head. I tried to give him a look that said "_I'm-sorry-it'll-be-okay-I-hope-she-gets-better-what-do-you-need?" _but I have a feeling I didn't portray all of that.

"I need you to work on lesson plans through next week." He said, I felt my heart drop, I don't know what I was expecting him to say, but that wasn't it.

"Okay." I muttered, nodding.

"If I'm not back tomorrow give them to the substitute." He sighed, he looked behind him like something was chasing him.

"Can I ask what's wrong sir?" My curiosity got the better of me. He swallowed and I thought he'd tell me off but he didn't.

"Sally," I'm assuming that's his wife. "she's got breast cancer, and they've just found that it's spread...badly." I gasped a little and rubbed his arm.

"I'm sorry...Paul. I bet she'll feel better when you get there though, so you, um, you better go. Percy's probably waiting. I'll get those lesson plans, give her my best please." I'm horrible at these things, I know. But he thanked me and nodded, pulling on his coat and leaving out the exit where a blue Prius was waiting. I saw Percy lean over from the driver's seat to shove open Paul's door for him. Paul climbed in, slammed the door and they were gone. I didn't go back into class where Jason was attempting to keep 30 rowdy teens from destroying anything. I walked away, heading down the hall to my locker. I guess I could clean it a bit. But of course it was an OCD dream, there was nothing to clean.

"Last year." I whispered to myself, sliding down my locker door to sit on the floor. I grabbed some of my blueprints and sank into my drawing. I had probably been there for 15 minutes when my head shot up as I realized something. Sally is also Percy's mom. I know that's obvious, but it had never clicked before then. Percy's mom has cancer and he has been acting the same as always, smiling, laughing, and working hard at sports. I even saw him comforting Leo Valdez (the bullied Sophomore) after he had been thrown in a trash can. How was it possible he was going through all that without showing it?

Okay, honesty time, I like Percy (not like _like, _just I think he's great), he's my favorite popular kid because he's nice and funny, but I never respected him. He gets a D+ average in Language and Reading and a C+ in other classes. Only a few weeks ago I learned he's ADHD and Dyslexic **[A/N: Annabeth isn't ADHD or Dyslexic in this story.]** So I understand why his grades are lacking, but still, respect wasn't something I attributed to him. He's never really serious, and he rides a motorcycle (Sexy? Yes. Respect worthy? Not really.). But now this whole wave of Percy-respect crashed into me. He's a lot stronger than what he can bench press I bet (though I think he can probably bench press a whole lot of weight). All I wanted in that moment was for his mom to be okay.

**PERCY JACKSON**

I had half a mind to leave Paul there and just head to the hospital immediately, but Mom would want to see him too. My throat constricted at the thought of her dealing with this information on her own. Paul hustled out the glass door, tears in his eyes. I leaned over and shoved his door open, he slipped in, slammed the door with unnecessary force. I didn't wait for him to buckle, I drove off as soon as all limbs were in the car.

I tried to focus on the street to keep from thinking of my amazing mom laying pale and alone in a white room, only strangers around her, telling her she'll be fine but my mom is smart so she's thinking she's going to die. So yeah, I focused on the road. I could hear Paul sobbing beside me. I couldn't listen to him. I turned the radio up ear-bleedingly loud, "Luck" by American Authors of course _had _to be on. **[A/N: If you haven't heard that song look it up to understand why he didn't want to listen to it...plus it's a really good song.] **So I switched stations to one playing some dumb pop song I've heard Drew and her crew listening to at lunch. It's horrible. I could still hear Paul crying beside me but the radio was as loud as it could go.

There wasn't traffic given it was 10:19 in the morning. My phone vibrated, I immediately pulled it out of my pocket and threw it at Paul. The last time I looked at my phone there was a call from the hospital saying "Hello? Is this Perseus Jackson, son of Sally Jackson-Blofis? We have some news on her condition. I'm sorry to inform you but her cancer has spread throughout her chest, it would be ideal if you and any _close _adult family members could come down immediately to discuss options. Ask the receptionist for her new room number." That's when I thanked the lady who deserved no thanks and ran out of Mrs. Dodd's class, without any form of permission to sprint through the school hallways to Paul.

"It's a text from Charles Beckendorf." Paul said. I was surprised he could read through the tears. But relieved it was only Beckendorf. I grabbed the phone and tossed it into the backseat, not bothering to even read the message. I heard Paul mutter something about how he shouldn't text during class. But I rolled my eyes and turned into the hospital's parking lot. There were no good spots so we'd have to walk a ways. If I was alone I'd run and get there in less than a minute but Paul isn't in the best shape and I couldn't leave him crying in the parking lot. I'm not that evil. He started off running (I could walk and keep his pace, I'm like 9 inches taller than him) but he ran out of air pretty quick.

"C'mon Paul, don't kill yourself trying to get there." I said, patting his back. Wishing I could sprint there. He nodded and coughed so we began walking (slowly for me, power walking for him) and made it to the doors in 287 seconds. Yes, I counted, it kept my mind off of mom. After a slight argument with the receptionist on Paul's part by calling her Sally Blofis.

"I'm sorry sir, that name is not in our system." The mid-30's lady with way too much pink lipstick on said for the 7th time. I had been pacing with my back to them till I couldn't take it. I whirled around to do this myself.

"Her name is Sally Jackson-Blofis." I said with a fake smile that allowed me to clench my jaw. The lady stared at me for a little too long, which was annoying but Paul intervened.

"Oh for God's sake woman! He's 17!" Her eyes widened and she quickly typed in the name.

"Ah yes, Room 487." She said nervously, not looking at us. I thanked her unnecessarily and Paul and I left. In retrospect I feel sorry for the poor lady but I can't change the past. Paul took the elevator but I couldn't stop myself from taking the stairs. I took them two at a time, putting all that football practice to use. I almost passed the 4th floor in my rush. I beat Paul there by a landslide, and I tried to figure out where 487 was. With dyslexia this is difficult. It took me way too long to find it. As I was about to head in I heard a voice from inside.

"Well Sally, our options are limited, it's taken most of your torso and we're doing everything we can to stop it from spreading more but I don't think we can get rid of it all. You're a tough woman though so I kno-" Some doctor said when my mom cut him off.

"Cut the bullcrap John, me being tough is as useful as that kleenex box in this situation." She snapped, her voice sounded weak and not gonna lie, I had to lean against the wall to keep from passing out at hearing all of that.

"Well, you don't know that." He said optimistically. "You could fight through this for a while longer Sally."

"And then what?" She said, I could hear the sound of her about to cry and I slid down the cement wall, sitting with my back against it. I felt some tears on my cheeks and my throat closed. I bit my lip to keep from making a sound.

"Then I don't know." The doctor said, but he knew exactly what would happen, everyone knew what he was trying not to say.

"Thank you." She choked out. I'm assuming he nodded at her. I heard him walking towards the door, my tears were faster now. "Oh!" She said as I heard the door handle click.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Please, _please_," she sounded like she was begging for her life. "Don't tell Percy!" She let out a sob as John assured her he wouldn't. I was traumatized, my mom is going to die and I can only act mildly concerned.

**SOOOOORRRRRRRYYYYYYYY don't kill me please.**

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	3. So Awkward San Cisco Is Jealous

**Yay! Chapter Three is here! Thank you so much for your beautiful reviews, nobody killed me at least.**

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**Everyone knows I don't own PJO.**

Somehow I scrambled up and ran into the handicapped bathroom across the hall, shutting the door quickly. I clumped my shirt up and stuffed the front in my mouth so I could scream. I dug my nails into my palms. I hadn't allowed myself to cry, or scream, or punch anything since we first found the cancer and it all came piling out at once. Nothing hurt as much as the idea of the world without my mom. I'm too young for this, my mom can't die. I always thought she'd outlive me (I know, ridiculous). She can't die at 34! I rocked back and forth, clenched in a ball. The last time I felt like this was back when Gabe was still around and he lost his temper at my mom. At least back then I could take a lot of her pain after I made that deal with him. I can't take her cancer, if I could I would in a heartbeat, but this isn't one of those deals. It's my job to protect her! Since my dad left her it's always been my duty to make sure she's taken care of. I failed so miserably. I probably sat in there for 20 minutes, trying to stop screaming into my bunched up shirt. After a little while I had no tears left and felt really hollow. I got up on shaky legs and looked in the mirror.

"I look like hell." I muttered to myself, staring at my reflection. My hair looked like I had yanked on it (which I did), my eyes were puffy and bloodshot, my bottom lip was bleeding from biting it, my shirt was wrinkled and stained looking (one of my favorite shirts I might add).

I zipped up my leather jacket that smells like Montauk and my motorcycle to cover the shirt. I flattened my hair to it's normal mess, I massaged the crescent patterns off my palms where my nails had dug in. I was used to covering up injuries thanks to Gabe so I made it look like my lip hadn't been bleeding by blotting it and adjusting how I'm going to smile. My eyes just looked bloodshot now, I could attribute that to worry. I took a deep breath, smiled at my reflection, unlocked the door, and opened it slowly.

"Ah, excuse us." A male nurse said, shooting me judgy looks for being in the handicapped restroom. He was pushing an elderly lady on a wheelchair who looked really sad.

"Oh, yeah sure." I stammered, holding the door open from the outside. The guy nodded at me as I practiced my adjusted smile on him.

"Freddy?" The old lady said hopefully, turning to see me. The nurse looked mortified, his nametag said Michael so she wasn't talking to him. We were the only two people she could see, did I look like this "Freddy", or is she hallucinating? She grabbed the hem of my jacket sleeve and looked at me with clouded watery eyes. "See Michael? I _told _you my son would come. Oh I've missed you Frederick! You're always so busy! Give Mom a hug!" She opened her arms wide for a hug. Now, I assure you my name is not Frederick, nor is this lady my mother. But I'm not heartless, I bent down and gave her a light hug, hoping she didn't realize I was not, in fact, her busy son. She muttered something about how tall I'd gotten and that she'd seen me on the news. She let me go.

"Okay ma, um, I've gotta get back to work, I just wanted to check up on you...uh..." I tried to end the conversation.

"Oh...of course you do! Say hello to the wife, and kids for me! Especially little Annabeth! Oh I love that girl, so smart, so sweet, so pretty, if only she spoke up...oh you did good on that one Freddy." She patted my arm.

"I sure will. We'll all come visit soon! Love you Mom!" I blurted out those false lies, feeling horrible and good at the same time. I shouldn't have said any of that, now she'll probably be waiting for her family that's not coming, but she looked so happy, flashing smiles with only a few teeth around.

"Well, it's nice to finally meet you...Frederick." Mike the nurse said carefully, raising an eyebrow, seeming to ask the obvious question "_Are you actually Frederick?" _I shook my head. And he nodded like he knew it, mouthing "_Thank you." _I gave him a quick nod and walked off, silently hoping her family comes soon.

"There you are!" I jumped as Paul came up beside me with a blue jello cup in his hand.

"Here I am." I muttered nervously, hoping he didn't ask too many questions.

"Where've you been?" He asked curiously.

"Got lost looking for the room." I said carefully. He looked at me with understanding.

"Sally? Guess who?" Paul said sweetly, stepping into the room. I took a breath and dug deep into my lying mind and followed him.

"Did you find h-Percy!" She smiled as she saw me, attempting to open her arms for a hug but the IV kept her from it, she looked dejected, I swallowed and strode over, giving her a peck on the forehead. She smiled wearily, and reached her non-IV arm to brush my hair off my forehead. I felt a smile tug at the corner of my mouth, she was always could make me smile the second I looked at her. I felt like I was 5 again. I barely noticed her lack of hair. I loved my mom's hair, long and in princess curls, I missed that.

"Hey mom." I said, smiling.

"You didn't have to come in the middle of your school day!" She said exasperatedly to us. Paul shrugged while I waved her off.

"Yes we did." Paul assured her. She shook her head with a slight laugh, probably thinking we were ridiculous.

"I'll take any excuse to get out of that place." I said truthfully.

"Hey!" Paul snapped, looking disgruntled, "I teach at that _place_!" Sally rolled her eyes and reached out to grab her husband's hand. He rubbed the back of her cold palm with his thumb.

"How're you feeling?" I asked her, keeping my voice remarkably steady.

"Not half as bad as they act like I should be." She says irritably, glancing at the door. "They won't leave me b-speak of the devil." She mutters as two nurses walked in. One bustled over to check some machine my mom was hooked up to. The other was Michael, the guy who had the elderly lady and knew I wasn't Frederick. I nodded at him, he gestured for me to come over to where he was. I walked over, noticing how short the blonde guy was, like 5'2", it made this really awkward.

"I just wanted to thank you for that, it made her day." He said, looking me way too earnestly in the eyes, like he wanted to see my soul. I swallowed and nodded at him. "Only her granddaughter visits and she misses them." He explained, I nodded again.

"It was my pleasure." I said,not sure what I should say.

"You look nothing like him, Frederick, I mean." He assured me. I snorted.

"I assumed that given he had a wife and kids." I said, making an awkward face, hoping to lighten the tension.

"Yeah," he chuckled and patted my arm. "You're more grandkid age, but she's-well-um-she's slipping." He said sadly. I gave him an understanding look.

"I'm Percy." I said, reaching out my hand for him to shake.

"Michael, Michael Yew." He said, shaking my hand.

"Nice to meet you." I said, trying not to have an awkward silence, I _hate _awkward silences.

"You too." He finished, and with a nod towards Paul and my mom, he left. They gave me confused looks but I shrugged.

"Oh," Paul said, turning to her, "Annabeth sends her best." He said like he had forgotten. I had no idea who this Annabeth was but I think that's the name of the old lady's great granddaughter. Oh well.

"Who's that?" Mom said, eyebrows furrowed.

"My top student." He said proudly. Mom nodded but I could tell that meant nothing to her.

"Well," She said, looking decisive. "You boys better get going if you want to get to afternoon classes!" She told me to give her a kiss and shooed us out with her hands.

"Does she realise it's lunch hour?" Paul said while we were walking to the Prius. I chuckled, glancing at the ridiculous traffic.

"Let's join the crowd and get non-cafeteria food?" I suggested, preparing for a disapproving look, but he nodded it was a good idea. It reminded me of how he used to be when he and my mom were first dating and he did whatever I said so I'd think he's "cool". What was he preparing for now? I dwelled on that for a while before hit me like a pile of bricks.

He was preparing to be my only parent.

I shut down. I barely spoke all lunch, thinking about that, living without my mom, going on with life without her. I didn't want to go back to school.

I'm glad that I did though.

We took an extra long lunch break, so when we got back to school I only had 10th period (final class) and swim practice left.

**ANNABETH CHASE**

"Ugh, where is he?" Drew screeched, holding Piper's wrist so she could look at her watch.

"He might not be coming back today." Reyna, the level-headed one, suggested. They didn't notice me sitting 14 feet away. I was in the library because it's a quiet place to read during tenth period, so I was wedged in between shelves trying to reread "_Gone With The Wind_" when Drew and her posse waltzed in, thinking it a good place to chat.

"He HAS to!" Drew demanded, pacing in her gorgeous stilettos. _He doesn't HAVE to do anything._ I thought snarkily.

"He probably will need to grab his stuff." Calypso offered.

"True, but I need to ask him out before the end of tenth, and I've got zero texts from my lookouts!" She checked her pink bedazzled phone yet again.

I wanted to slip out of there but I would have to walk through them, so I froze.

"How're you gonna ask him?" Silena questioned, her bubbly voice sounded excited.

"_Well,"_ Drew drawled annoyingly. "I'm gonna walk up to him real slow, like I'm scared." They all laughed at that...I didn't get the humor. "Then I'll make sure at _least _30 people are watching for publicity." She added seriously, giving an _this-is-important_ look, they all nodded solemnly. "I'll say hey, and we all know he'll say something nice, well, cause he's Percy! I'll laugh and act modest and insecure, I bet he'll eat that up." They all agreed. "Then I'll ask him what he's doing tonight, he'll say nothing, and I'll tell him we should get together while we're young and before we die so he'll obviously agree right?" Her posse nodded feverishly. I almost choked on how egotistical and evil they were.

"Where at?" Piper asked nervously.

"Oh obviously his locker!" Drew waved her off, checking her nails.

"Smart." Bianca complimented.

"I know." Drew said smugly.

"Hey!" Zoë said like she just remembered something. "Do I get him when you're done?" She sounded excited, but her smile faded at Drew's heavy glare.

"Done?" She snapped. "We won't be done! I can't dump him no matter what!" The crew looked scarred at the thought of a more than 1 month relationship for Drew.

"Uh why?" Bianca asked, eyebrows furrowed. "You kick _him _to the curb and you're legend! I mean that's shocking, you'll be the talk of the whole city!"

"Ugh you idiots!" Drew snapped, pinching her pointy nose. "If I dump him I'll need another guy right after, and any guy after him is a downgrade! I am not doing that." They all nodded.

"You're right." Reyna assured her.

"Of course." Drew replied. They all laughed. I almost gagged. Then I realized something; Percy, was not going to be in the mood for "while we're young, before we die" while his mom is on her deathbed. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I got up immediately, and walked out quickly, hoping they didn't say anything to me.

They did.

I ignored them.

I'm an idiot.

I tried to decide what I was going to do, I had to warn him, now. I heard Drew squeal "The lookouts saw him!" I began to panic. What am I doing? _Saving him._ My conscience said snarkily. I rolled my eyes at that but kept walking. I had to warn him, he shouldn't have to go through that. He's made it perfectly obvious that he doesn't like Drew by telling her off and turning her down a few times. It took me only a minute to get to his locker, but it felt like an hour. Only a few people were walking through the halls at the moment, a group of stoners, a nerd, Leo Valdez who seemed to be one of Drew's lookouts for Percy, and Octavian with a few of his sidekicks whispering to each other.

Percy had an orange locker, it was easy to recognize because he had it covered in stickers. In (his, I was a 7th grader) freshman year Travis and Connor Stoll, some of his ultimate best friends, put about 80 fish stickers on the face of his locker. Principal Brunner was livid at the fact they had defaced school property, and was considering suspension for all 3 of them, but that's the day Percy went out for swim team. With a time only 4 seconds slower than Michael Phelps and a shot at winning Championships, Mr. Brunner let it slide. He said they were planning on replacing the lockers in 4 years anyways as long as Percy kept that one all his high-school career. Now it was _covered_ in thousands of stickers saying all kinds of things, it was like our school art. I had even added a sparkly little owl sticker in the bottom left corner last year.

Anyways, I strode to the sticker masterpiece, it's rather mesmerizing, this little sign of all of us on his locker, it's beautiful in it's own way, that's for sure. I brushed my hand against the one that said "Momma's Boy" and suddenly felt very good about what I was doing. I set my crappy bag down and grabbed some paper (a white sticky note) and a pen. My hand was shaking horribly as I attempted to "speak" to the most popular person in our school. I finally wrote a legible letter "P" and I gained confidence, scribbling the rest of the note, trying to print for his dyslexia (normally I'm a cursive person).

_**Percy-**_

_**Drew is going to ask you out today, right here, I suggest you run unless you want to deal with that. **_

_**-Annab**_

I mentally smacked myself at the fact I was about to _sign _my name to this sheet. I tried to scribble it out as well as I could. I glanced it over again, sighing, it'll have to do. I attempted to look for a spot in the slats that didn't have stickers over it. I began to lose hope, when I found a perfect little sticky note sized spot in the lowest slat. Meaning I was on my hands and knees awkwardly trying to get the note in. I almost got it when I heard a voice.

"Whatcha doin?" It was a deep guy's voice, a little scratchy like he'd been talking a lot or screaming. I froze, paralyzed by fear. But I knew it was Percy, of course it was Percy. I slowly pulled the note back, hoping it would give me enough reason to be here. I could feel him standing beside me, I could see his dirty Converse next to me, he waited patiently, probably for an answer. I moved my hands off the floor and sat up on my heels, and, still looking down, I reached the note up to him. He sighed, like he was exasperated but grabbed the note, our hands didn't brush luckily. I heard him mumbling to himself as he attempted to read the note.

It was beyond shameful. I was on my knees on dirty floor basically bowing to him. Talk about school royalty.

"Erm," he seemed a little caught off guard. "Thanks?" I felt a bit relieved. "Here, let me help you up." His tanned hand was right in front of me, I noticed a few calluses and scars, before I knew what I was doing I reached up to grab it. My insides turned to jello and all of my skin felt burning hot, his hand felt all strong and nice wrapped around mine. He pulled me up like it was nothing, I still felt like I was cherry red. I kept staring at the ground as I yanked my bag on my shoulder. Awkward was an understatement. I realized I was blocking his locker and stepped forward so he could get in, but he still hadn't let go of my hand. I surprisingly didn't mind.

Human contact was a foreign concept to me, my dad and stepmom never acknowledged me, the twins kicked me every once in a while, Rachel wasn't one for touchy-feely, and no one at school knew I was here, though I have been knocked over before. So holding his hand felt like heaven honestly.

"Oh sorry." He mumbled, glancing at our hands and letting go. I felt a little sad but it made me realize how weird I was being. I nodded at his apology, still not looking at anything but the tile and my ugly shoes. Percy slammed his fist on the top right corner of his locker and it popped open, no combination needed. I felt like I should leave but when I took a step it felt horrible. He scrambled around and in record time he was packed, I finally got the courage to walk away, as I turned around I felt his hand on my arm.

"Where you going?" He asked, I shrugged. "Do you talk?" He said, I kept staring at my shoes, trying not to focus on his hand still on my arm (sure, it's through a sweater but it's still more than a lot). "Okay..." he muttered, letting go. "Sorry." I wanted to scream it's okay, that I don't mind,that I want to talk to someone, but I just nodded again. He swallowed and muttered something about how he "should run now" I stepped out of his way, I tried to keep my breathing even, but it felt like there was a one ton brick in her chest. I turned the opposite way as him and took a step.

"One question." He said, and I decided I would answer it, no matter what, face a fear. "What's your name? And can you look at me?" I sighed and looked up.

"That's two questions." I was just as shocked as him, I had no idea what I was saying. Probably because his eyes _do _have gold flecks in the ocean of blue and sea green, and he had a little stubble on his jaw, just a little, and his eyebrows were furrowed and his pink lips pouty. Good God I'm really close to his face. "And Annabeth." I said, not planning saying that. His eyes opened in shock.

"Annabeth?" He asked, disbelievingly. I nodded, and let my head hang down again, _his shoes are really scuffed up _I thought. "That name has been following me around all freakin' day!" I couldn't help myself, my head shot up in surprise.

"What?" I said, wondering what he meant, I mean Annabeth isn't the most common name.

"Yeah, first an old lady at the hos-" He froze, I knew he meant at the hospital, but he didn't anyone to know, I decided to help him out.

"The hospital right?" I'm sure I seemed like a creeper, knowing all of this, hopefully Mr. Blofis would explain. His eyes widened even more and I attempted to explain, "Mr. Blo-Paul told me, no one else though!" I added the last part frantically as he sucked in a breath. He nodded.

"Um yeah, the hospital- can we like go before Drew gets here?" As if she heard her name I heard the click-clack of her heels. I didn't answer but he dragged me away, holding my arm again, he continued his story as we rushed down the hall.

"She thought I was this guy, Frederick," I tensed at my dad's name. "You okay?" He was still holding my arm and must've felt me tense up or something, I nodded. Final bell rang and I swear I jumped 2 feet high at the shrill sound.

"Good, so she thought I was her grandson Frederick, and she told me to say hi to my wife and kids which is weird as all get out." He shook his head like he was creeped out. "And one of my-wait his-yeah his kids is named Annabeth!" I felt dread build up in my chest, _grandma_. That was definitely my grandma, she was in the hospital for a broken hip.

And she thought Percy was my dad? I shuddered at the thought, Percy is the _exact _opposite of my father. Not only in looks (my dad is short, has grey-blonde hair, he's a bit overweight.) Also Dad is temperamental, paranoid, non-committal, and neglectful. Percy is go-with-the-the-flow, relaxed, loyal, and although forgetful for class assignments, never misses any of his friends' things.

"Weird." I said, still comparing Percy to my family, they have _nothing _alike, which cheered me up substantially. "Right?" He said shaking his head, "Oh and then Pau-Mr. Blofis mentioned that Annabeth sent her best to my mom." I nodded, I had done that. But I was regretting it now, Percy let go of my arm but we were both headed the same way so we walked together. "Was that you?" It took me a moment to realize he was asking if I had said that, I nodded.

The halls started to flood with people, I had to get away from him fast. No one could see us talking, that would be horrifying. I waved my hand a little, I'm sure he didn't see it, and pulled away from him.

That hurt more than I thought it would. I missed his hand on my arm immediately, and my heart slowed down, I couldn't feel the adrenaline and couldn't hear the soft thud-thud of it in my ears. My blush died down, leaving me feeling cold.

Was that just how it felt to touch someone?

I doubt it.

But the other option was more ridiculous.

_There is no way in heaven or hell _I _could possibly _like him. _No, I'm not even in a league and he's-he's in the highest league there is._

I. Do. Not. Like. Him.

I repeated that over and over in my head as I rushed towards the door, I started to believe it. The halls were filled with kids. I ducked my head and weaved my way through, bumping into no one. I'm a pretty good crowd navigator. I vaguely heard Percy say my name, I had rushed off rudely, but I kept going. That had gone too far. I waited by the water fountain for at least 10 people to leave the school so I didn't stand out for being the first one out.

**AAAAAAAAAH Percabeth has begun...sorta. Sorry Annabeth is so OOC, she'll get better I promise, Percy'll help with that ;-)**

**REVIEW OR FOLLOW OR FAVORITE please, or all 3, or a mix of two, I don't care. It encourages me to update sooner!**

**-Lili**


	4. The Sister Story of Shame

**OH MY GODS WOW**

**YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING**

**I CANNOT BELIEVE IT...20 REVIEWS? EEEP!**

**THANK YOU**

**I was texting my friend about how much I love you guys and she described it perfectly "it's like getting little happy mail for doing what you love" and it really is, you guys make me so happy and all I have to do is write! So awesome!**

_**SilverHuntress: **_**You and me both haha**

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_**Tom Marvollo Riddle 2: **_**Uh...whatcha doin on Fanfiction Voldemort? Jk...sorta! Thanks! I was really worried about the OOCness and I still am!**

_**Jedi1: **_**Thank you! Yeah, it's weird making them all friends given most/all of them besides her are really amazing and awesome role models, but I think even the best of us slip up sometimes and I'm trying to be realistic with this story. No one is perfect. Also, keep in mind (this is for any of my readers) Percy and Annabeth are not the only ones who have something Hidden. Mwahaha...**

**I DON'T OWN PJO AT ALL!  
Happy Reading!**

**ANNABETH POV**

I hate school. Well, the social aspect of it anyways.

But I hate home more.

At school there's thousands of people that change all the time and knowing all of them is pretty ridiculous, so me being invisible is believable.

At home there's 5 people, occasionally 6, and I've lived there for 15 years, but there I'm almost even more forgotten.

That's why before I walk home I hang out by the giant pine tree. It's right out front but just out of the line of sight. I normally stay there for the next hour or so, heading home at 4:30, tree time is like my best time of the day. I crawl to the spot where the branches make this sort of dome against the school building. I've cleaned the place up pretty well, there's no pine needles on the soft packed dirt and the ground is flat.

"Big big day Thalia." I told the tree.

I know what you're thinking: _Wait...rewind._

I can explain. Thalia Grace, that punk goth chick I mentioned earlier? Yeah, this was her tree. My first year here, which was last year, I found this spot when I ran away crying from an argument between Rachel and I. I found out how much I loved how the light that filtered through the branches, and how the roots spread so big that it made me a cozy little spot to sit.

I talked out all my problems, not to anyone, just talked, like I had someone to listen. Since it felt like the tree was hugging me I decided the tree could be where I ranted about life.

It felt wrong not to name it.

I was going over names as I walked away when I saw a spot of white on the dark bark, I walked back to inspect it.

**THALIA**

It was her name and a little lightning bolt etched into the bark, at first it creeped me out, that the tree seemed to name itself. I thought about it for a long time and decided I could call the tree Thalia. This year I learned who Thalia was, and I saw her looking longingly at the tree. I felt like I should rename it but I couldn't...it's Thalia to me now.

"I talked to _Percy Jackson._" I said, more to myself than Thalia. At the beginning I felt foolish, I'm much too old for an "imaginary friend", but it's basically the only way I make it through my day, so yeah, I guess I'm foolish.

"And he's so nice, and I feel so bad, his mom has cancer." I let that sink in. I barely got any time to talk to Thalia, and I _really_ needed that chat with today, there was too much that happened.

But of course as all bad things happen: they happen together. I heard a horn beep and a ton of gasps, I peered out to see what was going on. I wished I hadn't.

It was my dad's car, which was weird on its own, but my dad wasn't in the driver's seat.

I glared at my stepsister who was getting out of the car, leaving it empty in the no-park-zone. A few horns honked at her but she ignored them. Somewhere deep down I knew she was here to pick me up, Rachel and I used to be sorta close before she became really popular and I skipped those two grades. We were a dynamic duo, I helped her with homework and she helped me socialize. Sometimes I would design a building and Rachel, being the amazing artist she was, painted it all built and beautiful, with a little red-head girl in overalls and an even smaller blonde girl, their arms around each other, looking up at the building like "Yep. We did that." I still have some of those hanging in my room. They're basically my favorite possessions and no matter where I end up they're gonna be hanging where I live.

Have I mentioned I miss artist Rachel?

Cause I do.

A lot.

"RACHEL!" Calypso screeched, launching herself at RED. "What're you doing here?" They hugged and Rachel laughed, that's when I noticed how much better she looked now compared to this morning. Her frizzy mass of hair was straightened into a flawless sheet, the hair in front was pulled back and in a small purple clip. Her makeup was redone into a perfect mask, no freckles peeking through and gorgeous porcelain skin, I knew she was wearing more makeup than all of those 7 popular girls combined but she looked natural, except she had some green eyeshadow making her green eyes pop.

_Percy's are prettier._

My subconcious muttered scathingly, I couldn't disagree, he does have gorgeous eyes.

Wow. I'm weak.

"Look at you! All grown up." Reyna said proudly, she wasn't fawning over her like Silena and Calypso were, but standing regally in front of her with an accepting look on her queen-like face. All of the populars were around her excluding Drew, I had a feeling that she was searching for a certain black-haired guy. I felt triumphant, he had gotten away. That's when I noticed Rachel's clothes and my heart sank, I was hoping for simple jeans and a t-shirt or tanktop, maybe shorts, but no. She was wearing a shiny strapless pencil-skirt dress and a light grey sports coat over. Her black heels were at least 6 inches tall. She was beautiful, I'll give her that.

But it was a mask.

She painted a picture of the idea that she got _even better_, and she was like legend at the school. It was shocking. She did not look like a girl who was failing every class and had almost been expelled 3 times. She looked like a girl who had life figured out, was smart, yet beautiful, and like she had a well paying job. It was more sickening than shocking.

"I missed you guys so much." Rachel assured them, giving them pecks on the cheek like she'd been in France instead of NYC.

"We missed you too!" Zoë assured her.

"What are you doing here Miss Big City?" Piper asked her, lightly bumping into Rachel's shoulder. I sucked in a breath, hoping Rachel still had a tiny bit of love for me and wouldn't mention me.

"Oh just visiting the family. Was Mystic always this small? God it feels puny." She said, referring to our town (Mystic Country, Connecticut). **[A/N Yes, this is a real place.] **

"I'm sure." Bianca said, nodding. I felt a pang in my heart as her little brother, Nico, walked up to her and tugged on her sleeve, obviously wanting to leave, she waved him off, giving him a _not-now _look. I felt sorry for the creepy kid.

"We _have _to get together later." Silena said, giggling. "You need to tell us all about college." They all nod frantically, excluding Reyna who gave one nod then turned to talk to her boyfriend, Jason. He was this tall blonde, blue eyed guy, who was a great friend of both Percy and sweater vests. He was handsome but no fun. He and Reyna were a good match. They were heads of student council together. He gave her a kiss, she smiled, and then he walked off, jumping into a black jeep, driven by his sister, Thalia. No, not my tree, the real Thalia. They were twins **[A/N: Sorry I've changed so much guys!]** but they hated each other and lived in this mansion on the other side of town that they never had to see each other in. Apparently Thalia thinks Reyna is a bad match for him.

"Definitely." Rachel assured her.

"Text us?" Zoë asked. I felt bad for Rachel immediately. Her dad was rich so she got food and into a great college, but she was responsible for her phone bills.

Needless to say, she has no phone now.

"Uh," Rachel said awkwardly. "I'm pretty busy tonight, but tomorrow all of us are going to the mall at 2, be there." She said. "Where's Drew?" She questioned.

"Tell you tomorrow." Silena said. Rachel nodded. Then it was awkward, none of the girls wanted to leave because Rachel is basically the boss, and you don't leave the boss.

"Well..." Zoë said. "Sorry to just dash but I have to run Will, and Bianca's brother home before 4 so Bee and I can get to Archery." Rachel smiled at her, and nodded, then those two left, Nico following sullenly and Will looking ecstatic to take a ride with his girlfriend.

Rachel leaned down to whisper to Silena and Calypso but I caught what she said given my prime location.

"Is Jackson still as hot as he was last year?" Rachel asked, giggling.

"Hotter." Silena said proudly.

"_No way."_ Rachel said, her gossip face lighting up. Yes, she has a gossip face. Her eyes light up, and she smiles a little, and her eyebrows raise. It's actually a pretty look. Rachel has a strict no-younger-guys rule, but she always talked about Percy, though they never dated.

"Way." Piper said. They all sighed.

"I'll see you ladies tomorrow at 2." Reyna said with a kind smile.

"Okay Rey!" Silena and Calypso said at the same time while Rachel returned the smile. Piper nodded at her. Piper and Reyna didn't always get along because Jason had asked Piper out before her. Piper had said no because she was dating this actor from Cali at the time.

"I better head out too." Piper said sadly, glancing towards her pretty sports car. "C'mon Cal." Calypso nodded and gave Rachel one last hug, following Piper. Rachel wove as each of them drove away until it was just her and Silena.

"I have to find Drew." Silena sighed. Rachel was a smart girl so she probably had an idea of where Drew was.

"Need help?" Rachel offered sweetly, looking very superior in her professional outfit and 5 inches taller.

"Oh no, she'll be a mess, she won't want you to see her like that." Silena assured her. "Thanks though!"

"Of course." RED said.

It was all so fake.

So scripted.

I don't know how they do it.

Silena gave her a quick hug and then power walked off like she had a mission. A few guys swarmed my step sister but she quickly waved them off like flies. I was still hiding behind Thalia (tree) so no one had seen me. After the crowd around her had died down she looked pointedly at my tree, catching my eye, and raising her eyebrow. She only knew about it because of that night last year.

**FLASHBACK **

_"When are you going to grow up and start caring about life?" Susan screamed at Rachel, waving her arms wildly. It was 3 AM and I vaguely heard Bobby and Matthew waking up from the racket. Rachel had just gotten home from a party. She hadn't drank much at all, she was wearing all her clothes, and her hair was pristine, but Susan didn't care. This was Rachel's first past-curfew party and she was livid. I was up waiting for her too. Mostly because we shared a room and she's wake me up and share all the juicy details with me by the light of a flashlight. I always enjoyed her stories, how she exaggerated everything and gave the girls squeaky mouse voices and the guys sounded like hulks._

_Anyways, the whole house was now awake as Susan yelled about this and that and how Rachel was disappointing her and her father. Normally Rachel would fight back, but she seemed off. I knew something had happened at that party._

_"Answer me!" Her mom snapped, grabbing her chin and forcing her to look into her brown eyes._

_"I don't have to!" Rachel growled, pulling away._

_"You'll amount to nothing living like this!" Susan said. I gasped. I was hiding behind the wall but that was a low blow. Rachel's biggest fear was being a nobody (like I am), and Susan knew that. I was waiting for the blow up, when RED whirls around, rage plastered to her pale face, and she tells Susan off on so many levels...but it never came. _

_She stepped quickly away, head up, threw the door open...and ran, barefoot, through the subdivision. Susan stared at the open door in shock, but I didn't have time for that, I sprinted out of my hiding spot, and ran through the opening, not bothering to close the door. I was in my PJs, some of Rachel's old really short shorts she wore in gym her freshman year, and a white tanktop. Nothing else. _

_It was January. There was snow. We didn't care. I followed the soft crunch of her feet hitting pavement as she navigated the roads. It was eerie, passing house after house with dark windows and no sound, only the sparse street lights to indicate where I was. But I kept going._

_I saw a flash of her read hair turn a corner and I yelled out._

"_Rachel! Where are you going?" I screamed, luckily there were no houses near where I yelled from. I know how pathetic I looked - my hair a poof of curls, sweaty but cold, standing in a pile of snow, with dirty feet, screaming out at a ginger wearing fashionable clothes but no shoes, tears trailing down her makeup drawing lines down her cheeks._

_She didn't answer me, just kept sprinting. I trailed after her, it didn't take me too long to figure out where she was going._

_The school._

_I know, I was thinking the same thing as you, "School? Of all the places she could run to? Airports and leave? The cab company? Her boyfriend's house? BFF's? Back to the party?" Nope, she ran to the dark and empty school._

_Not to mention the LOCKED school that's 15 minutes away by car._

_Snow is really freaking cold._

_She slowed down and stopped at the front doors. I showed up around the time she was shaking the doors._

"_RED? You okay?" It was a stupid question but I asked it._

"_Go away Annie." Normally I'd reprimand her for calling me Annie._

"_C'mere you're not gonna get in." I told her, lightly grabbing her shoulder._

"_I said, go away!" She yelled, whirling around, her face like an angry cornered dog ready to kill. Not gonna lie, she's bigger than me and more people like her, I was scared, but she didn't need to know that. I stood up straighter, boring my grey eyes into hers (I didn't have my glasses on, they were at the house), she glared._

"_Let's go." I told her, trying not to show how blue my fingers had gotten in the cold night._

"_No. I am not leaving." She said adamantly, swatting my helpful hand away from her shoulder._

"_Yes. You are. I'll talk to Susan, tell her to leave you alone and we'll talk it out like always." My stomach knotted up at the thought of talking to Susan. Rachel was the only person I talked around normally, and she did most of the talking. That set her off for some reason._

"_Get away from me!" She screamed. I knew she wasn't drunk, but it probably would've hurt less if I knew she was out of it. I stood, staring at her, wondering how _she _of all people was so angsty. "Stop being perfect Annabeth! I'm sick of you!" I know what my face looked like, open mouthed, wide eyed, and ticked to no end._

"_Stop pushing people away Dare!" She gave a cold laugh. As sisters we were prone to fights, but this was different, this wouldn't be stuff we could take back._

"_Ha. That's rich coming from you of all people!" She argued, I saw a smirk pull at her face. Not a joking one. A "I'm-enjoying-making-you-hurt" face. I stepped back._

"_Oh yeah? Why? Cause I hate this school and everyone in it? Because I don't want to be friends with people so shallow they can't even spell shallow? Because dad couldn't care less about me and Susan thinks I'm a waste? Because my mom offered Malcom a job but hasn't wanted to meet me at all? Because I know that I can do better so I get good grades? Huh, RED? Am I pushing people away? Answer me!" I snapped those words, feeling tears bubble up in my eyes._

"_No! Because you could do better _now _and you don't! You just wait!" She replied, stepping towards me. I knew she was talking to herself now too._

"_Like that's any better than you!" I argued, feeling a foreboding sense that something was about to reeeeaaaalllllyyy snap._

"_SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" She screamed as loud as she could, her words echoing down the dark street. She was sobbing now, tears freezing to her face. I felt a few doing the same to mine. I didn't reply, just took another step back, ready to walk away before something happened. I couldn't feel my feet anymore. I kept watching her, waiting for the point in which she slides down the wall behind her, sits on the cement, and says 'I'm sorry. I've had a really rough night-' and then goes on to explain how she and Zoë had a fight or something. But that didn't come. She caught her breath so she could say something else._

"_I hate you." My world spun, no, she couldn't hate me, not her too. I took a dizzying step back. I lost track of where she was, the world was tilting haphazardly around me. Then I felt a sting on my cheek. Everything came into clear and sharp focus. Rachel stood right in front of me, her face a mix of rage and tears, her hand was held like she just smacked something._

_Oh._

_Me._

_Rachel hit me._

_I gently reached up to touch my cheek, it felt raw, but so did the rest of my body._

_So cold._

_Her rage looked like it was starting to fade, replaced by regret and fear._

"_Thalia." I muttered. My mind moved slowly, but I wanted my tree, it was always warm and comfortable there._

"_Who?" Rachel asked between gasps of breath. I turned and without regard for the foot deep snow (we had been standing on shoveled cement), I began to walk towards my tree, I tripped a couple times but I was starting to feel less cold and I had stopped shivering, I was actually kind of warm._

"_Where are you going? Oh my God Annie it's so cold! Come back! We'll figure it all out just-ANNABETH!" She screamed as I fell face first into the snow. "Get back here!" Her words were muddled in my mind. "ANNIE COME HERE!" She screeched. All I could think was what I said._

"_Don't call me Annie." but my voice was slurred._

"_Ugh!" She looked around frantically (I know this because she told me later, I still could barely see). Soon enough she was next to me, wearing a bucket (the janitors left their stuff outside normally and picked it up in the morning) on each foot as "shoes". It would've been ridiculous, the sight of her in some dark skinny jeans, a long sleeved low cut sequin shirt, and a fashionable jacket...with mop buckets for shoes, but I was too dizzy. Apparently I passed out after that._

_The next thing I saw was a fluorescent light. I was in the hospital._

_Yeah, talk about drama._

"_So she'll wake up pretty-Annabeth!" Rachel left her conversation with a male nurse and ran to my side when she saw my open eyes. I tried to say something but my mouth was too dry._

"_Water?" The nurse offered - Michael - was his name. I nodded, and soon my tongue felt less like sandpaper. "'I'm guessing you want to know what happened." Michael said, but I shook my head, I'm a smart girl, I can diagnose myself._

"_I believe I got pretty severe hypothermia, based off symptoms and where I was at when I started attracting symptoms." I stated, he looked surprised but nodded._

"_I'll be back in a moment." He said, and left, but not before giving Rachel a look._

"_He's hot! H-A-W-T hawt!" Rachel said after he walks away. I rolled my eyes. I had no idea where we stood in our relationship. There was an awkward silence._

"_So..." I said, trying to get the ball rolling._

"_Where were you going?" She asked abruptly. I felt ashamed, I didn't want to admit that I wanted to go talk to a tree._

"_I don't know." I lied. She gave me a 'yeah-right' look. I decided I could tell her, I mean she did just save my life by wearing buckets for shoes. "To that tree." I said, hoping that was enough._

"_Why?" she asked, I sighed._

"_Cause I like it." I said, looking away._

"_Is that where you go while I'm at practice?" Rachel asked. She was a cheerleader, along with Piper, Zoë, and Silena. I had to wait for the end of practice for Rachel to drive me home after. Yes, I did go hang out with Thalia waiting._

"_Yeah." I answered. She nodded._

_The story goes in with us apologizing, apparently her boyfriend, that jerk Octavian, had called her pathetic and she dumped him, and she was really emotional from separating a drunk Piper and Reyna from fighting before that. We got a little closer after that, but a few months later she left for college and it was never the same._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

So, yeah, she knew where my tree was.

**Um...oops. I totally messed up on this chap sorry guys. That whole flashback part wasn't even planned, I just started writing...and it happened. There was supposed to be a Percy POV and all that with his thoughts on Annabeth, but I guess that'll be next chapter.**

**What are your thoughts on Rachel? I want to know! Review, ask questions, say criticism (nicely), I don't care, just review please! Can we get to...thirty reviews? I mean you don't have to but...that would be AMAZING...BYE!**

**-Lili**


	5. I'm Percy and I'm Seriously ADHD

**WE MADE IT! Well sorta, 29 reviews. I was hoping for 30 but wow...I wasn't expecting to get this close! Thank you all so much you guys are GREAT!**

_**Awesomeness: **_**Why thank you my dear!**

_**Same Guest lol: **_**Hello same guest! Yeah Rachel is a little whack but she's a good person, just kinda broken. Yes you can have Percy this chapter! Hmm maybe Rachel **_**does**_ **need to give Annabeth a makeover. I gotta be careful with that though because it's so cliche and I don't want to be **_**that**_ **person. I'll consider it of course though!**

_**LeaderofBrooklyn:**_ **Boy that was a thorough review. I'm sorry if the flow and my writing are awkward for you! I am trying to improve. I do have the entire story planned out, I just don't have all the details. That flashback was going to happen at some point, it just happened last chapter. I am trying to be original, if you notice any horribly glaring cliches please let me know! I might ask for that help sometime!**

_**Book-shelfdivided: **_**Oh you have no idea how much I love your reviews! Thanks!**

_**daughterofposeidon2001: **_**I can see why you guys would think Rachel is a horrible person, but honestly I love her. She needs a little softening up though! She won't seem very nice for a little while! I'm not bashing any characters except Drew no matter what it may seem like! Thank you!**

_**A the Invisible: **_**HI! Sorry you're like my favorite reviewer (sorry other reviewers but A is amazing). I'm planning on making Rachel niceish! Just taking a detour before that ;-) Thanks!**

_** -M.M.E: **_**Aww thanks!**

_**LavenderBooks: **_**Phew! I was worried about the flow! Thank you for that little confidence booster!**

_**guest: **_**Thanks!**

_**EVERYONE PLEASE READ THE AUTHORS NOTE AT THE BOTTOM ABOUT SHIPS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!**_

**I don't own PJO**

**Happy Reading!**

**PERCY'S POV**

I left the school in a rush for numerous reasons.

1) Drew was looking for me

2) I wanted to get back to my mom

3) Rachel Elizabeth Dare was there

I thought I would never see her again after last year. Or at least that's what I hoped. But no, she was there in all her fake glory. She looked like college was treating her well at least, all dressed up and smart looking. Ew. I remember all the rumors I had been told about how our school used to be this nice place without levels of popularity, then Rachel came, and she was so ruthless about being the best it turned our school into a drama-ridden hole of annoyance.

She's not my favorite person.

In good news though, I found an awesome person. Annabeth. She has a pretty name...and a pretty face.

Woah wait, where'd that come from?

I'm totally against high-school relationships just so you know. They're messy, superficial, ridiculous, and more trouble than they're worth. I have never had a girlfriend, which seems to make girls want to ask me out even _more_. It's sad. My mom is not really happy with that decision for multiple reasons.

One, she really is looking forward to embarrassing me in front of someone I like, I never invite any of the guys over, we normally go to Jason's place, his dad is R-I-C-H. They don't care, they don't really wanna hang out at their English teacher's house. So if I ever get a girlfriend, no matter what age, I have to bring her to my mom's house on our 5th date. It's a rule. My mom made it.

Two, she thinks I need someone. No idea why, she just really thinks I need someone to love and someone to love me back. I don't think she realizes I'm 17 sometimes.

Three, the most important reason, she met my dad, the star-crossed love of her life, when she was 15. He was 17. And I was born 9 months after their one-year anniversary. It's so weird to imagine that at my age my dad was a dad. I'm totally not responsible enough for a kid. Though he had my mom to rely on, she was _born _responsible. Saying that is kind of ironic given she had an unplanned teen pregnancy. Oh well, she's perfect. She doesn't want me to have a kid by any means, she just wants me to "experience how wild and beautiful and scary young love is." I know she misses my dad.

Dad was a surfer, he loved fishing and the ocean. In storms he'd go and stand outside and look up at the dripping clouds and crackling lightning, just like me. My mom tells me all the time how much I look like him or remind her of him (not in front of Paul though, that'd be awkward).

Apparently he would take my mom on the best dates without even trying. They never once went to the movies or a restaurant, nothing cliche. He'd randomly drag her off to go-kart racing, or a random store and they'd spend hours looking at the weirdest crap on earth. But their best date was the beach day. Yes, _the _beach day, the beach date to end all beach dates. When he was driving her to school one day (in his classy little blue VW bug) he turned before they made it. She was mad, saying they'd be late and all that but he ignored her. He took her to the beach, and they played hooky. He taught her about surfing and they picnicked on the teeny roof of his car. Her toe still has a scar on it where a crab pinched it. They swam in their school uniforms and basically just fell in love, according to my mom. They even cliff dived. I mean, yeah, I've gone cliff diving, it's awesome, but imagining my cookie-baking mom do it is weird.

They stayed all day, ditching work and school and all obligations, and all stress. That night he proposed, no ring, no knee, nothing, he just blurted a good ol' fashioned "Marry me?" while roasting marshmallows. She said yes and yada yada they made out I bet, then he was all "I um...I wrote you a song." (I dunno either, he's just awkward that way.

It went something like this:

_Love of mine, some day you will die_

_But I'll be close behind_

_I'll follow you into the dark_

_No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white_

_Just our hands clasped so tight_

_Waiting for the hint of a spark_

_If Heaven and Hell decide_

_That they both are satisfied_

_Illuminate the "No"'s on their vacancy signs_

_If there's no one beside you_

_When your soul embarks_

_Then I'll follow you into the dark_

_In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule_

_I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black_

_And I held my tongue as she told me,_

_"Son, fear is the heart of love."_

_So I never went back_

_If Heaven and Hell decide_

_That they both are satisfied_

_Illuminate the "No"'s on their vacancy signs_

_If there's no one beside you_

_When your soul embarks_

_Then I'll follow you into the dark_

_You and me have seen everything to see_

_From Bangkok to Calgary_

_And the soles of your shoes are all worn down_

_The time for sleep is now_

_It's nothing to cry about_

_'Cause we'll hold each other soon_

_In the blackest of rooms_

_If Heaven and Hell decide_

_That they both are satisfied_

_Illuminate the "No"'s on their vacancy signs_

_If there's no one beside you_

_When your soul embarks_

_Then I'll follow you into the dark_

_Then I'll follow you into the dark_

I know, it's pretty dark. But she knew something you don't. His greatest fear in the whole entire world was death. He would do anything for immortality. She knew how when he did dangerous things and flirted with death he was terrified, contrary to the popular belief that he wanted to die. He was so scared to die, of the unknown, and there he was, basically singing that he'd die for her.

Losing her was his new greatest fear.

She sang that song to me every night after she tucked me in for years.

If that's not a love story for the ages I don't know what is.

But of course, just like all those stories it ended faster than it started.

No matter the time he'd launch to the ocean if he "felt" a perfect wave coming on. He was always searching for it. "The wave in which man and ocean become one." He would surf the craziest waves in the most dangerous weather looking for that wave.

Yeah, he was insane.

Not even the best surfers would go out, but he would. He broke a total of 569 boards while looking for that wave. My mom thought he was crazy at first but soon wanted him to find that wave as bad as he did. I guess it was out there and if he got it he'd find what he needed. I don't know what he needed so bad, but he really had to find it. He even named the wave, _Απαντήσεις, _pronounced "Apanteesees." It means "Answers" if you were wondering. He spoke Greek, of course, as if he wasn't awesome enough.

Anyways, he searched for that wave for years, my mom was only there for the end of the search. One stormy day while at work in this dorky little coffee shop where he had to wear a pink apron he jokingly served a cup of tea to my mom, pretending like he didn't know his pregnant fiancé. They were laughing and joking about if I would be a boy or a girl when he froze. She got all worried but soon he snapped out of it, looking out the window providing a perfect view of the storm.

"It's here." He whispered creepily. Now on the outside my mom looked all '_Really?-Oh-That's-Great-Go-Get-It!'_ but inside her stomach was in knots, which means I (as an unborn baby in my mom's tummy) probably didn't feel too hot either. He yanked the pink apron off and vaulted over the counter, tearing out of the shop like hell was on his heels.

"_Απαντήσεις! Τέλος!" _(pronounced "Apanteesees! Taylos!" and Τέλος means finally FYI) He yelled, running to his little VW bug of a car. My mom scrambled out as well, as fast as a pregnant woman can. She got in the car as he was looking for his keys. He gave her a '_what're-you-doing?' _face and she answered by bucking in.

"If you go, I go." She said.

He found his keys and sped (literally sped, like 20 mph over the limit) to the beach. My mom gets choked up when she tells this part but from what I understand it went something like this:

They got to the beach in record time, it was raining really hard and there was lightning and thunder every 5 seconds. She tried to tell him to stop, that Απαντήσειςwasn't there today. But he wouldn't budge, he tugged off his polo shirt, gave my mom a kiss on the cheek, patted her belly where I'm sure I appreciated that. Then he ran off with his silvery-gray board with "Η Αναζήτηση" written in blue letters on it, that's "The Search" in Greek.

Anyways, my dad paddled out against some crazy ocean, and kept going till my mom saw it. That wave. Απαντήσεις was there, she had no idea how she knew it was the wave, it was a gut feeling. Maybe _I_ knew, given it was a gut feeling, and I was chillin' in her gut at the moment. But she screamed out. Dad got excited and furiously paddled to reach it. My mom wasn't the only one out there. His speedy departure had attracted a few followers. A cop was there, his boss, and four or five other adults. They were all sitting in their cars staring towards the little blip was my surfing dad.

"That idiot!" One cop yelled. "What's he doing? Get him back here!" My mom flipped him off I bet, or at least I hope so. She never told me if she did or not. She also censored the cussing in her rendition of the story, and I know there was some because she curses like a sailor when she burns her hand on a cookie sheet.

She's really a sweet lady I promise.

Back to the story, my dad paddled out as the wave got bigger and bigger, as people saw it they all hi-tailed it outta there. My mom was the only one still on the beach, leaning on the little blue car, wind almost tipping her over, I was probably in her stomach like "What-the-heck-are-you-doing-ma?" but I don't remember the details. She apparently knew what was going to happen before it ever did, my dad stood as the wave hit him...and it was perfect, he hit the wave and I don't really know what happened, but they both knew he had found it.

Then he lost it. She heard him yell something in Greek that she's pretty sure was "I FOUND IT!" But I don't know how she could've heard him over the storm.

I think it was her imagination.

But I can't tell her that.

Cause she never saw him again. The wave smashed over him and he never came back up. She sat on the hood of his car on that beach for days without eating, I'm sure I was _starving _in there. The storm had turned out to be a hurricane and no one came to check the beach until they'd found more people, luckily my mom was OK, cause she wasn't moving. It's a miracle we're here honestly.

She says it was dad looking out for us, giving us one last gift.

I don't have the heart to tell her that's not possible and dad was an irresponsible, raving lunatic who couldn't handle commitment.

So I pretend I love him, but in all honesty I think he really needed a reality check. His family was loaded, if he hadn't gone we wouldn't have had to starve cause she couldn't pay bills, we wouldn't have lived in that part of town where my mom got jumped, and most of all, we wouldn't have suffered through Gabe.

I won't tell you all about that tragic tale.

I have a sucky enough past already.

Hey, who knows, I might have a cool future.

_Yeah, right_.

I hate that little voice in the back of your head that's always right.

Holy crap I started thinking about Annabeth and out came my parent's story. I'm going nutso.

Annabeth is a pretty name though.

I can't believe I've never seen her before, I mean she's not like the people I hang out with in the aspect of looks, not that I hang out with a lot of girls, but all my friends are dating.

You've got Jason, aka Mr. Golden Boy, he's really boring, but at least he's nice enough unless you say you're better than him at anything. He's competitive. He's dating Reyna, who's pretty cool, she and him are like the exact same person though, they're so static. I mean, my mom describes teenage love as "wild and beautiful and scary" and they're anything but. They follow like every unwritten rule in relationships, he gets her 12 red roses randomly once a month. They have met each other's parents and follow all curfews. To say hi she pecks him on the cheek, they go to every school dance together, her in a regal dress, him in a tux the same color as her dress. They have Thursday date night, where he takes her to a fancy restaurant, compliments how pretty she looks, pulls out her chair, and they chat about life. Everyday they meet at 8 AM before school so they can walk in holding hands. It's like they're robots who haven't been programmed to feel passion.

Then there's Beckendorf, who is great, he's funny and a really great friend to have. He loves Silena, he keeps a picture of her in his locker and loves to stare at her. He asks her "How'd I ever get a girl like you?" about 20 times a day. He allows her to dress him up at dances and carries her bags at the mall. At parties he carries her to his truck and drives her home. Their parents don't approve and I think they like that. He gave her a promise ring a few weeks ago and she cried so hard she had no makeup left. We all know they'll end up together, it's obvious.

Travis is dating Katie, and no one knows why. They fight all the time and make up by making out...no matter the location. I think they live for the drama or something. They've broken up 22 times. Twenty freaking two times. But they started dating 4 years ago and they're still together so there must be something there.

Travis' little brother is Connor, he's a junior and the two look exactly the same. He dated Calypso Ogygia for about 2 seconds and is now with Lacy who's a freshman, she's pretty cool, she's Piper McLean's half sister so she's pretty too. They're really awkward but they're cute so that's cool.

Frank is dating Hazel and it's more weird than cute. He's in my grade, 17 years old, and he's dating an 8th grader. I'll let that sink in, AN EIGHTH GRADER. They really like each other, but she has to stand on something to kiss him. (If I had a shorter girlfriend I'd just pick her up, but he won't). Whenever he invites her over to one of our hang outs we all get worried if we shouldn't say our normal cursing and comments in worry of destroying her innocence. All their dates are sitting at a movie theatre watching an older movie in French, they hold hands for 45% of the movie, and don't talk cause that's rude.

I hope they're not classified as wild and scary, they seem so safe. From my observation, love like my parents is like my dad's search for Απαντήσεις, dangerous, really unpredictable, difficult, and no one understands that all they're doing is looking for this feeling. I guess that's my search, for my own _Απαντήσεις,_ except mine is a love story.

But if I _really _fall in love, I'm going to take her cliff diving, I think that will be my moment.

This is like the only thing in my life I have planned out.

I'm really ADHD if you hadn't noticed. Through all those thoughts I had walked to my motorcycle, Blackjack, I love Blackjack. Never steered me wrong. I got on, and drove off quickly, avoiding the rush. As I was riding I finally focused on one topic. Surprisingly though, it wasn't my mom.

It was little miss Annabeth.

And I focused on her this time.

She was the first girl I've found at my locker who didn't want to date me or ask me out, so that's nice. She wasn't much for conversation though, she seemed scared to talk to me. What was she scared of? I'm nice enough. She looked like a Sophomore, maybe that's why I haven't seen her. I don't know how she knew what Drew was going to do, but she was right. Maybe the whole school knew. I'm glad she warned me though, I don't know if I could have been polite to Drew. It was a little weird, how she knew about my mom, I'd have to ask Paul about telling her. Maybe he could tell me about her. It was kind of ironic how many times her name showed up.

She was obviously smart, I mean impeccable handwriting, a ton of books, and yes, she looked like a nerd.

_A really cute nerd._

My brain is messed up.

_She is cute though..._

Shut up.

Now I talk to myself, yay!

She is cute. I'm not gonna deny it (unless it's said aloud, then I'll deny it). You could tell she worked hard to not be noticeable which made me more sad than I care to admit. She's so pretty and she covers it up. Her glasses looked almost fake, but from my view (which is over a head taller than her I caught a sliver of her real eye color.

The same exact grey-silver of that surfboard "Αναζήτηση". My mom found that board a week later as it drifted to shore in one peice. It's my favorite board and I surf on it a lot. Though my mom can't know that because she says it's cursed. But seriously her eyes were amazing from what I saw of them. She wasn't really pale, but she wasn't tan either, she had the most average skin tone known to man.

I noticed a few freckles across the bridge of her little nose. She had sorta red lips but they were really chapped like she bit them a lot.

She didn't really strike me as short persay, mostly because she was proportioned normally. Well, semi-normally, this girl is _Skinny _with a capital S. Even in her overly baggy clothes I could tell she didn't possibly weigh more than 100 pounds. **[A/N: I want to make it clear; I am NOT, under any circumstances saying that it's important to be skinny or that's how you're pretty! Annabeth doesn't eat much because she's always busy, no one bothers her about eating, and she avoids the cafeteria. Please don't think I'm saying to be skinny is to be cute because that's so not true. You guys are perfect. I swear.] **She wasn't all that fit, but when I grabbed her arm it was more muscley than I expected.

But it was her hair that got me. She has princess curls. You can't really tell because most of it was pulled down in a bun, but right about when I was going to end the conversation a traitor curl fell into her forehead. It was golden blonde but that doesn't matter, they were still the same curls my mom had lost to cancer. That's when I asked her 2 questions but called it one and she surprised me with large amounts of sass that was unexpected but nevertheless appreciated.

My thoughts slowed along with Blackjack as I reached a red light. I had been barely paying attention to the road and it's a miracle I didn't get to the hospital a lot faster than planned. There were no other cars because I took the sideroad that day so I could get to my mom faster.

"Ow!" I heard someone whimper. I whirled around to see who had said that. The light turned green as I turned off my engine. I swung my leg off, not really worried about who I would find but at least curious. I strode across the sidewalk to look into the bushes. What I found sure gave me a shock.

"Grover?" I looked down at Grover Underwood, ex Best Friend Extraordinaire all tangled up in a thorny rose bush. His crutches at least 4 feet away.

"Oh," he laughed nervously as I raised my eyebrow. It took a lot of self control to not smile at his goat-bleat laugh. "H-hey Percy." He said, trying to act like this was the most natural thing in the world - which it wasn't, but I played along.

"Hey G-Man. What's up?" I tried not to notice the camera around his neck or the notebook and pencil behind him, on the dirt.

"Goin' home." He said carefully. "You?" His voice cracked into a squeak. I pitied the kid, I promise, but he'd refuse help if I offered it.

"Same." I lied. I don't know what I was thinking, he knew where my house was, I hadn't moved since Gabe left and that was at the end of 6th grade. Grover was still my friend in 8th.

"Oh...did you move?" I rolled my eyes at him and offered him a hand up, not answering his question. He waved me off but I kept my hand there knowing he'd need it.

"Here." I offered leaning over and grabbing his crutches. I remember how he used to let me do stunts on them with my skateboard. I used to scrape _myself _up really bad so whatever Gabe added on my mom wouldn't notice. He floundered for a little while longer before grabbing my hand. I hauled him up. He weighed a lot more than Annabeth who, when I helped up practically weighed 3 pounds. But I got him up anyways. His legs started spasming again so he had to lean on me.

I hadn't stood that close to him in years, it was weird. His acne was about the same, his hair was still a frizzy ginger mop, he had a new Rasta cap though. He and I used to be about the same height but now he was as short as Annabeth. It made this weird.

He muttered something as he put his crutches around his wrist but I couldn't hear him. He leaned away from me and we awkwardly stood together on the sidewalk.

"So you turned Drew down?" He said nosily. I shook my head no. "You said _yes_?" He asked incredulously.

"God no!" I said, looking disgusted. He looked down at his toes. I immediately felt bad. I didn't want to hurt his feelings, just the thoughts of dating her, that rumor going around, and the fact that he also knew what she was planning. I patted his shoulder and stepped back, trying to end the conversation. He turned around to grab the notebook out of the bushes, I walked towards Blackjack and swung my leg over, ready to leave.

"Percy?" He squeaked. I cut the engine and looked at him expectantly.

"Yeah?" I responded.

"Tell your mom hi for me." He said, trailing off. Grover had met my mom tons of times in elementary and middle school, he loved her almost as much as I did. But he didn't know about the cancer, that would kill him, he's not as good at dealing with bad stuff as I am.

"Will do G-Man." I assured him, lying. The docs said she needed less stress and the mention of Grover would only stress her out.

"Thanks. Did they cancel swim practice or something today?" He asked curiously.

Crap.

I _totally_ forgot about that.

"Nope. I'm just stupid." I answered, preparing to rev the engine. He laughed his goat-laugh and it made me smile. He had the weirdest laugh. I told him that in between my own chuckles.

"I know!" He squealed, laughing so hard I worried he'd fall into the bush again. I'm not really sure why we were laughing so much, or what was so funny, but we were _cracking up._ I had to turn Blackjack off again and put down the kickstand. Our laughter died down as he wiped tears from his eyes.

"Oh Perce, I miss ya man." He said, hiccuping and wiping off the cover of the book. I tensed up. Four years of avoiding me and now he misses me? Great. Just great. More to think about. I didn't know how I was going to respond before the words tumbled out of my mouth.

"Miss you too G-Man." I said. He looked shocked. I glanced at the clock on Blackjack. "Gotta go." I said, and left abruptly. He waved me a goodbye. I nodded once. _Did I miss him?_ I have tons of friends now, I don't have much to miss about him.

**FLASHBACK**

"_Congrats to our 8th Grade Graduates!" Principal D said. All of us cheered. We were sitting in the dinky middle school gym at a not-real graduation ceremony that the parents put together for us. My mom made the cookies. The _blue _cookies. Everyone dispersed to grab food and drinks and take pictures._

"_Oh good job boys! I'm so proud. C'mere!" My mom said, grabbing both Grover and I, hugging us tight._

"_Sally-can't-breathe!" Grover choked out. She let us go and made an 'oops' face. We both laughed. Grover's parents were talking to Juniper Groves' parents._

"_Woah, looks like they're planning on marrying you off to Juni." I joked as his parents complimented how beautiful Juniper was turning out. He turned bright red._

"_Pffft no way." He said, breathing hard._

"_Oh my God. You like her!" I said a little loudly. He slammed his crutch into my toe. "Ow ow owie!" I hopped around holding my foot._

"_Shut up." He said, smiling. He looked a little sad too. Mixed with embarrassment._

"_You know what this means right?" I said mockingly. He glared. "I WINNNNN!" I yelled victoriously, getting some weird looks._

"_Yeah whatever you win." He said, waving me off. I dropped my arms from their victorious positions and looked at him curiously. He was acting weird. Winning didn't feel too good._

"_What's wrong man? It's cool you like Juniper, you need to ask her to homecoming next year! I'll be your wingman!" I bumped his shoulder and grabbed a cookie. He rolled his eyes. I waited for him to grab a cookie...but he didn't. He loved my mom's cookies, he could eat more than I could. Something was wrong._

"_No Percy." He said, not looking me in the eye._

"_You don't have to ask her if you don't want to." I said. "We'll figure something out!"_

"_No we won't." He sighed._

"_Quit being such a downer!" I said, smacking his back. "I'm pretty sure she likes you." He shrugged._

"_That's not what I'm upset about Perce." He said, staring at the punch in his hand._

"_Oh...what is it then?" He didn't answer and I began to guess. "You gonna miss middle school? Your parents being weird? Scared about high-school?" He whirled and looked me in the eyes, his pale features determined._

"_We. Can't. Be. Friends. Anymore." He said the words each like a punch in the gut. I gave him my best 'nice try" look but froze in fear as I saw his determined expression. His lower lip was wobbling and tears were forming. He was serious._

"_Why?" I said, my voice cracking pathetically. He shook his head, not answering. "Grover. Why?" I growled, grabbing his shoulders that were almost as scrawny as mine at the time. He shoved me off._

"_Sorry man. High-hic-School is my-hic-fresh start." He hiccupped through the sentence, wiped his eyes, and turned to hobble away. I stood frozen in his wake._

"_Percy? Sweetie?" My mom asked, worried as she walked up._

"_Let's go." I said bitterly. Glaring at Grover who looked hurt now._

"_Oh are you sure?" She asked._

"_Let's. Go." I snapped and dragged her out of the gym. I shook my principal's hand, thanked him, and we left._

_I'd like to say I stayed strong but the second I was in the car I broke down._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

He had been polite but distant for years now. I figured out that he had been worried that I would destroy any chances of him having any other friends cause people thought I was stupid and scrawny.

I'm still stupid. But at least I'm not scrawny.

Blackjack and I arrived at the school around 4, where most kids were gone except a couple druggies. I parked in an empty stall and jogged into the school, hoping coach wasn't too ticked at my 45 minute late self. I grabbed for the door handle when I noticed a blonde blob to my right. I turned to find Annabeth - you know, the one I can't stop thinking about for some reason - sitting up against the wall reading a 2000 page book. I got a headache just looking at it. I wondered if I should say hi when the door I was golding opened. Right into my nose. I groaned, holding my hand to my face, looking down at my attacker.

"Rachel?" I asked, my voice muffled by my hand over my mouth.

"Percy!" She said, throwing her pale arms around my neck. I patted her back with my free hand and she let go. She screamed shortly, looking at my face as I put my hand down.

"I'm not that ugly am I?" I joked, trying to figure out what was - oh, bloody nose. Great. She laughed at my joke as I tried to look for something to hold to my nose. I glanced and my eyes landed on Annabeth, who was searching through her trashed bag.

"Did I do that?" Rachel asked, genuinely worried. I nodded mutely. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean-" I waved her off.

"It's fine." I said in that voice you get when you have a cold or, of course, a bloody nose. She looked relieved then at Annabeth who had gotten up. I waited for Rachel to tell her off or give her a disgusted look like the ones she gave me when I was a freshman but instead she took the tissue Annabeth had offered her. It was weird, they seemed to know each other. But that made no sense, they were opposites.

"Thanks Annie." She muttered then reached up to help with the bloody nose.

"I got it." I said, taking the kleenex from Rachel, who was being overly helpful. I was still contemplating how they knew each other, nonetheless Rachel had given her a nickname. There was an awkward silence.

"I gotta go to swim practice." I said in my stupid nasally voice.

"Oh ok." RED said, looking dejected.

"Good seeing you again Rach." I said, to make her feel better. Then I glanced at Annabeth who was looking at her shoes. "You too Beth." I said, she looked up surprised. If Rachel can call her Annie, I can call her Beth I decided. Her pretty eyes were wide. Rachel was looking between us like we were from a different planet.

"Bye Percy." Annabeth squeaked, not looking me in the eye. It made me sad how scared to talk to me she was so I tried to assure her I was nice and flashed her a quick wink. RED's celery-green eyes opened even wider. I pulled open the door and walked in, smiling at Annabeth's pink face.

I know what you're thinking.

No. I am not flirting with her.

No high school relationships for me remember?

Okay, maybe I flirted a _teeny tiny eentsy weentsy _bit. That's it. It was harmless.

Now only if I convince myself it was harmless.

**DUN DUN DUN**

**jk**

**I just felt like saying that.**

**So there's a lot to review about now! Give me your opinions on **_**anything **_**in the story! Also, I have a VOTE FOR YOU GUYS! YAY!**

**Alright so there's a lot of ships in this story and I want your opinion on what ships you want to happen. So here's the rules:**

**1) You can only ship one person one time. No "Oh I want Jeyna and Jiper!" Pick one. I obviously have Jeyna now but Jiper would be easy.**

**2) You can vote for as many different people as you want.**

**3) PERCABETH IS SET AND OFF LIMITS! NO OTHER SHIPS!**

**Without further ado, here's the list of shippable peeps.**

**Rachel! [She is dating Luke (a bartender in NYC near Rachel's college) currently but that can change.]**

**Thalia [You can vote she stays single too.]**

**Reyna [Currently with Jason duh...but open to change.]**

**Jason [If you decide you don't want Jeyna tell me and pick who you want with Jason. Piper _is _available.]**

**Frank [I don't know who else you can ship him with but oh well.]**

**Hazel [Same as Frank]**

**Travis**

**Katie**

**Will [Currently with Zoë but ya know...that can change]**

**Drew**

**Zoë**

**Bianca**

**Calypso [I _guess _if you really pull for Caleo I'll have to give it to you]**

**Nico**

**Piper [With an actor from Cali but eh...not too close]**

**Charlie**

**Silena [If you choose to separate Becklena I will be sad.]**

**Malcom [He's 22 remember]**

**Luke [Tell me if you don't want him to be in the story]**

**Connor**

**Lacy**

**OK I think that's about it, if there are any I forgot go on and add them. Please add your opinion on as many of them as possible, your input is MUCH aprecciated! If you vote I PROMISE YOU WILL GET A MOMENT BETWEEN THE COUPLES YOU VOTE FOR EVEN IF THEY DON'T END UP TOGETHER!**

**So...tell me your votes and what you thought of Poseidon/Sally story and how I did writing Percy's POV! I **_**need **_**at least 10 reviews to do the next chapter because I really need input!**

**It might be a little while before next chapter so bear with me please!**

**THANKYOU!  
LOVE ALL OF YOU!  
-Lili**


	6. Of Divas and Nerds

_**AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! FIFTY FIVE REVIEWS?**_

_**I ASKED ONLY FOR 40! I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH! YOU GUYS ARE A-MAZ-ING I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!**_

**Okay...I'm calmer now. But wow, I am so happy about how many of you like this story.**

**I'm going to put my review responses at the bottom A/N so you can see them in a bit...so far the ship standings are (you have a few more chapters to keep voting):**

**1) Percabeth duh**

**2) Jiper/Jasper**

**3) Caleo**

**4) Thalico (I'm not sure about this one guys, he's 14, she's 17, and he's SPOILER gay)**

**5) Liper**

**6) Frazel**

**7) Octavian/Rachel and Luke/Rachel and Rachel/Michael Yew (PLEASE PICK ONE FOR HER GUYS)**

**8) Jeyna**

**So yep! Keep voting! There's 12 with just one vote so they might just happen since no one contradicted it...**

**I'll stop boring you with my Author's note! But we've got a NEW POV today!**

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

**Happy Reading**

**RACHEL'S POV**

I was still frozen in shock as Percy walked in the school, holding his nose.

I felt so bad about that.

But of course he didn't want my help, he never wanted to talk to me, even last year when we sat at the same lunch table.

I finally turned to look at Annabeth, who was still as red as my hair, shoving that book that must have weighed more than her in that crappy bag her brother gave her.

"What was _that?" _I finally managed to say as she adjusted her bag strap. She ignored me. Or she possibly didn't hear me. Sometimes she spaces off and you have to shake her or something. Last time when she spaced off with me she figured out the 4,678th number in the Fibonacci sequence. It took her like 2 hours but she was extremely pleased with herself for some stupid reason.

**[A/N:The number is: 1971042947088827207012374614490643856455**

**6336443003224515765111047753543754915635589386553017079806053282560612762697884129840537829056767907376687215049657624679009201905508957156299203971702343891590388206235615383884094285072563274079842851856885994718214956558811257935953291797894978123221520914133959821727531152770846148837775380210150370498035231194518903179132450145993718634909170851624206931223057895260236130255765866612620691075511417800104817083416448095234513205086163367847850097095353803748731321884393863026621204593115547444282915440735066594844305235048645679889175287589408400707537758970053570860828468127317191971021904064817853849272564060397209552528315980424429445348496142325789840589770738664147075427120301761471335310795480360390091940551568493697561959111288042957409837290602831938713456120863133875490738276398295893827371019206525597621709039049298149223811258137858819854472491455330267271517546676090905179587105470795513272670738666639 if you were wondering.]**

When she spaces off her eyes move like they're looking at something.

"Annie?" I asked, hoping she would answer, she didn't. I saw the calculating look in her eyes, and there was no way to get her back now. "C'mon." I said, grabbing her little wrist. She walked with me, her eyes still all weird, whispering things to herself. It wasn't creepy, she just looked like she was thinking, it was more of a reminder of how freakin smart she was.

**FLASHBACK**

"_Why can't we stay here?" I asked, my little 8 year old self getting angry._

"_Because that's not how this works sweetie." My mom said, putting even more of her shoes in suitcase #14._

"_Make it work that way!" I demanded, little ginger springs flying everywhere on my head. (God my natural hair color is horrible.) She laughed at me, turning to look at my teary face, then she turned solemn._

"_Baby, daddy isn't going to let us stay. You can visit him every once in a while I promise." She assured me, straightening my little Dora The Explorer denim jacket. We were standing in the remains of my old bedroom. The green walls were bare and the bed was stripped down. I glanced at my old walk-in closet, empty too._

"_Daddy doesn't love me?" I asked. More ticked than sad. He had broken so many promises to me over the years, I just couldn't believe that "I'll love you forever and ever my little RED." (which is what he told me every night, even if it was just a phone call from a business trip in Taiwan) was one. That couldn't be a broken promise _too.

"_Of course he loves you baby. He just doesn't love me." Her voice was cracking now. I grew confused. I was regretting all of those "Love you too big RED."s that I replied with. His full name was Robert Edward Dare, and he wanted be to be his little red. That's why I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Me being a ginger was just a coincidence._

"_So where are we gonna stay?" I asked, all business. Mommy was sad, daddy wasn't here (he was in LA for a conference), so I was in charge. I clenched my jaw, pushed my hair back, and looked at my mom with one of those 'I. Am. The. Boss.' looks that I'd seen my dad do too many times. She smiled at my determination and went in for a hug, I pushed her away. There's no time for lovey-dovey chit chat I told her, throwing another shoe into the bag, and attempting and failing to zip the bulging suitcase._

"_LEONARD! MY ROOM! NOW!" I hollered from my perch atop the suitcase. My favorite butler walked in promptly._

"_How may I help you miss?" He asked with a fake British accent that I insisted he used._

"_Zip this up." I said. He nodded and grabbed the bag. I turned away from him and turned to my mother who was watching sadly. "Now, where are we going? Do you have a truck? What time are we leaving?" She laughed again._

"_Quite the little delegator aren't you?" She said. I had no idea why she called me an alligator, (I was 8, and never the smartest kid.) all I cared was that she had answered exactly ZERO of my questions. I crossed my arms, trying to look big and scary like daddy. She nodded and cleared her throat. "We are moving to Mystic Country, Connecticut to live with Frederick." I nodded, Frederick was mom's boyfriend, I had met him once, but that was enough to know I didn't like him. I didn't know the word for it before, but I thought he was a total pushover. "Daddy is letting us use one of the trucks. We are leaving at 9 PM." I thanked her. Leonard was standing ready, with a zipped suitcase._

_I looked at the clock. That's when I remembered I didn't know time. _

"_Leonard, how much time do we have?" I said._

"_4 hours." He answered, I glared at him, waiting for what I knew. "Two movies miss." I nodded, that was plenty of time. __**[A/N: I have a little cousin who tells time like that.]**_

_Leonard left and my mom looked serious again. "We need to talk about the living arrangements." I frowned..What? _

"_With Fred?" I questioned. I couldn't pronounce Frederick correctly to save my life, probably because of my lisp. Thank God I grew out of that._

"_Yes. His daughter will live with us too." I froze in shock. I wouldn't be the only kid. I've always been the only kid. "Her name is Annabeth, she's 5, and you two are going to get along really well." She said it all cheery like it was fun. I began to be not so excited._

"_It's so great to see you again Rachel!" Frederick said, not sure if he's allowed to hug me or not. I'm glad he decided no. I was traumatized. My day had been horrible ever since we left. We had to wait until dark because daddy didn't want publicity on us leaving. So I was tired. Then mommy cried as she drove the car outside of New York, I didn't really grasp the concept of "moving" yet and we were in Connecticut before I understood it and was screaming to go back. We got to Mystic at 1 in the morning, I had slept for 3 hours of the ride but was still dead on my feet._

"_She's pretty tired." my mom said, hugging my shoulders. Frederick looked around awkwardly like he didn't know what to do when a kid is tired. Doesn't this guy have a daughter? I thought sluggishly._

"_You ladies can have my room and I'll sleep on the couch. My eyebrows furrowed, why couldn't I sleep in my room?_

"_Good idea, we'll let Annabeth slee-oh hi!" My mom said, looking at the girl in the stairway. She was a lot littler than me, with blonde hair and grey eyes. I didn't even know that was an eye color. She looked completely alert, even though she was wearing a t-shirt so giant I knew it was Frederick's, those are _pajamas? _I thought, shocked and thinking about my pink satin ones with poodle decorations._

"_Hullo Susan." She said awkwardly, looking at her toes._

"_Smartie, were you reading?" Frederick asked, looking like he might scold her. She nodded slowly, still looking at her bare toes. I immediately thought of my green painted toes. Mommy and I got pedicures every Sunday. Was she gonna come now too? I hoped not._

"_Wait...she hasn't gone to bed yet? Frederick!" My mom snapped, looking mortified. He shrugged._

"_She likes to read." He said hopelessly. I gaped at her, she could read? She's five! I was a little weirded out that not only she could read, but that she liked it._

"_So? Kids need their sleep! Let me guess, she gets up at 3 in the afternoon!" My mom whispered angrily. Frederick shrugged again._

"_Don't think so..." He said slowly. "She's normally up and around to make me breakfast in the morning before work." I was getting more and more mortified with each word. SHE makes breakfast? Where's the cook? Why does he act like he doesn't know her? Didn't he have to drop her off at daycare? (It was summer so we didn't have school) Why are they talking like she isn't there?_

_Little did I know they'd keep talking like she wasn't there would turn into forgetting about her over the years._

"_That's going to change." Mom assured him, kissing his cheek._

"_Aww." I said. I loved couples, how cute they are. Annabeth had made a disgusted face but she was still looking at her toes._

"_A little romantic isn't she?" Frederick said, looking at me. I nodded decisively. He grinned. "Not this one." He said, nodding towards Annabeth. I looked at her in surprise. She was so weird._

"_Oh!" Mommy said in surprise. "They look alike Frederick!" She said, I whirled to look at Annabeth._

_We did NOT look alike. Okay, we both had curly hair, freckles, and were built like every other little girl in the world. Her hair was a mess and a dull blonde, mine was perfectly french braided, thanks to Jan, the maid, and rusty red. Hopefully their maid can french braid, I thought. She must be the best french braider ever because she obviously was a horrible cleaner, I glanced at the dusty shelves, only the high ones were dusty though._

"_They do!" He said proudly. "Okay it's 1:30 now, bedtime for my girls." He said. Mommy nodded. Was I one of his girls? I'm not sure I wanted to be. "Why don't how her your guys' room Smartie?" I realized he called her Smartie like daddy called me little RED. Wait...he hadn't called me yet. I began to panic, he called me every night. I grabbed mom's phone out of her hand. She yanked it back._

"_What are you doing angel?" She asked, looking at my trembling lower lip._

"_Daddy didn't call me!" I said, breathing hard. Frederick looked awkward._

"_He'll call you later, during the day love." She assured me, her jaw clenched._

"_No! He always puts me to bed! He tells me he loves me and then calls me little RED! I have to talk to him!" I said, wondering if he really didn't love me. Mom and Frederick gave me sad looks but wouldn't give me a phone. "Annie?" I said, forgetting her real name. She looked at me with wide crazy-grey eyes._

"_What?" She said really quietly._

"_Doesn't your mommy call you? Where's the phone? I know daddy's number! Where's the phone your mommy calls?" I said, panicking. Daddy didn't love me and no one cared!_

"_My mommy doesn't call me." She said, looking back at her boring toes. I didn't get it, how could her mommy not call her? How could my daddy not call me?_

"_Annabeth show her to your guys' room." Annabeth nodded. It was 3 AM now and still nobody had let me check on daddy. Wait OUR room? I share a room? No. I followed the blonde girl DOWNstairs. I always live upstairs. So much was going wrong I started to feel like this was a horrible nightmare._

"_Ta-Da!" She said proudly. I almost had another tantrum. The room was as big as my old closet. There was no door, just a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. The ground was cement but had a big ugly rug near the beds. One was a 30-year-old looking full bed with a hand sewn quilt. The other was a twin mattress on the rug-covered floor. There were bare lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling. The walls weren't painted, but covered in drawings of buildings in pencil. The only window was close to the ceiling. Books were stacked all over, on every surface, there was a file cabinet and I could see papers in it. Her clothes must've been in that little dresser because I saw a sweater sleeve poking out of the top drawer. I pushed down a scream._

"_This is your room?" I asked, looking at the little blonde in horror._

"_Our room." She corrected me, putting sheets on the mattress. I shoved all the rude thoughts away, she was obviously proud of her-I mean our closet-sized room. "There." She said, her hands on her hips, looking down at the sheeted mattress. I had put on my poodle pajamas already, changing in the bathroom. The shared bathroom. There was only one. I screamed then too._

"_What's the maid's name?" I said, beginning to wonder if they had one._

"_Margaret." She said, then burst out laughter as I started to yell for Margaret._

"_What's so funny?" I demanded._

"_We don't have a maid silly!" She said, still giggling and holding her stomach like it was the most hilarious thing in the world._

"_Who will fix my hair then?" I said, mortified._

"_You..." She said carefully. I gaped at her, starting to hate Annie._

"_Or I will." She said, shrugging. I looked her up and down, it was better than doing it myself. It took her no time at all as she yanked out my braid, thankfully she didn't pull my hair._

"_Thank you." I said, taking the ponytail._

"_Oh!" She said, remembering something. "Come here!" she said. She dragged me towards the bed, stood me where she wanted me and ran to shut the light off with the string that was hanging from the naked light bulb. I was about to ask what she was doing when I noticed the night light that lit up the drawn on walls. The buildings were beautiful and intricate on all of the walls, but the one near the bed with the night light especially. It looked familiar but I couldn't place it. She was bouncing up and down in excitement before she burst._

"_It's New York!" She said proudly. I gasped as it clicked. "I thought you might miss it so I studied up on the architecture," I had no idea what that was but I guessed it meant buildings. "Sorry for the eraser spots. She said dejectedly. There were smudges all over the drawings and numbers like measurements. I normally hated imperfections._

_I didn't mind these._

_She _was _only 5. And I'm pretty sure 1% of adults could do that._

"_Wow." I whispered. She grinned widely, showing a missing tooth._

"_You like it?" She said happily. Looking like an actual 5 year old for the first time._

"_Yeah." I said, still staring at the wall. She breathed a sigh of relief. _

"_Good, I was worried." How could she have been worried? Did she know how amazing she was? My art tutor in New York couldn't even do this, and she was award winning. I suddenly felt bad for not bringing her anything._

"_You did this all in a week?" I asked, shocked. I had learned about the divorce 7 days ago, I assumed that's when they did it._

"_No! Of course not! I did it as soon as I heard you were coming about 7 months ago." I froze. No way. Everyone knew except me. For 7 months. I felt like crying but I had cried too much that night._

"_Thank you Annie." I said, holding back more years. I'm the big sister, I'm the tough one. I turned, I was so tired, I was gonna pass out where I stood._

"_No problem." She said sweetly, seeming much too professional for her age. "You can have the bed." She offered. I stared at her in surprise, all of my friends in New York would've told me to take the mattress with the argument of "I was here first." but she seemed to insist. She was way too nice. How was I supposed to hate her and Frederick and Mystic if she was super sweet?_

"_Thanks." I said, not sure what one says in this situation. I crawled on to the big bed, about to pass out before she bothered me one last time._

"_Oh! Sorry, one second." She said, tiptoeing over. She grabbed something from under the pillow, it looked like a brown haired lady standing in New York, in front of the Athena building like she owned it. I forgot about it for a long time._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

Little did I know that her giving me the bed would be a lifelong pattern.

It was small things at first; the best donut, last Capri-Sun, second time slot in the bathroom, shutting her reading lamp off whenever I whined about it, staying quiet while I talked, apologizing first after I got mad.

Then it was bigger stuff; telling mom and Frederick that I should be the flower girl at their wedding, not her; taking all the bad chores, or doing my chores; telling my mom or Frederick that the broken vase was _her _fault, not my boyfriend's who had been over without my parent's permission in 7th grade; helping me with homework; bailing me out of detention; punching that boy who had told me I was stupid; telling a boy to go away when he told her she was pretty because she knew I liked him. Stuff like that.

Then, she skipped those grades and all of the sudden she was headed to high school with me, a grade younger. And that's where it all went awry. She _begged _me to not tell anyone we were siblings, to not acknowledge her, and told me she'd do anything. She already did everything so I thought this would be a good way to pay her back.

I totally ignored her, and even kept some attention off of her. Like that day Reyna found out she was 2nd in all of her classes, for the first time in _years_ and I knew my little Annie had a report card with a _low _grade of 102%. I told Reyna to chill and she hated me for weeks, even got my boyfriend to break up with me.

Annabeth doesn't need to know that though.

She covered for me all the time, babysitting the twins, lying about where I was to mom and dad, getting Principal Brunner to leave me alone, all sorts of stuff. I liked doing it for her one time.

So that's what I was thinking when I was dragging my little step-sister to the car. Trying to calm myself down that Percy Jackson flirted with her and she didn't like him.

Infuriating was an understatement.

I'm not really sure where she goes when she spaces off, but I'm sure I wouldn't understand. Her IQ was 172, I don't know if you know this, but Einstein's was about 160. She's a classified genius. Look up the charts. It's insane how smart she is.

I was always jealous of that.

"Sorry." I heard her mutter from the passenger seat of the car when she "woke up." Or that's what I call it when she snaps back to reality.

"S'Okay, figure out number 4, 679?" I said. I knew I was horrible to her this morning and I had just gotten some pretty terrible news back in the school about 10 minutes ago. That's the weird thing about bad news, you either become really mean, or really nice. I felt nice.

"No, but it's..." She paused for a second, writing some numbers in the air with her pointer finger.

"No! It's okay!" I said, panicked. Those numbers are so big it takes forever to say them.

**[A/N:318921448167548302761703162067868937157630248420362738739545363613130277096547868219601923085792307057167852116704571254703981538314704692654642394917878512435738401877023091106365319766544594383621908601053134686325565575269103691603672155763543420245207198015505160117144266894628287428164290677077907280429478269794584133055702924747596558570705872747308043274794465844599417584635364625349829393744684352610307805079578683861285178931131401520289249527573939506640061121908443661149531332535454468106309723362358115388489251880472113917617070263788459473765143260402892404655042679727324654189677004762069607255002016468316725111746392818030862753716940485441320004247446351543173233760506289257767761193741531476275668364640553917894317983518122327916574722117060292310737040868842451955391469778594310880961235767610385388568220525346071300232913936910171345177575702273788987597796137885960310312925952232160425331089538062323036020437789327461383877001646966616709735121 if you actually care] **

"Alright." She said, putting her finger down and leaning her forehead on the window. I decided to calm myself down about the whole Percy Jackson thing and bring it up later.

"So, how was sch-" I began to ask.

"Why are you here?" She said. She didn't sound mad, just like she knew I was at the school for a reason. Not only is she book smart, she can read people like books. Does that count as book smart? I don't think so.

I couldn't tell her how low I had dropped back in NYC, I couldn't tell her about Luke, I definitely couldn't tell her I wanted to leave NYU. But most of all, I couldn't say why I went into the school.

That was embarrassing.

She was still waiting for an answer. She had taken those useless glasses off so I got her full on glare.

She was _mad._

There's a few types of "mad" in the world. There's people who get mad easily, and those who only lose it like 2 times a year. I'm the first, Annabeth's the second. Then you have people who scream and yell and argue when they're mad, saying things they regret; and then the ones who stay quiet, and all you do is worry how they'll murder you - you know that they can do it too. Once again, I'm the first type, Annabeth is the other.

She's scarier than Reyna. That's horrifying. I tried to ignore the look on her face. Her lips were pursed slightly, her eyebrows raised, and her stormy eyes had darkened.

"Answer me Rachel." She said, her voice even and smooth. Every time she had ever gotten mad at me it was for my own good, when she was worried about me. Even when she was mean she was nice.

Ugh.

"What do you want to know Annie?" I asked, her eyes darkened a little more and I made the mistake of looking at her. I flinched, jerking the car halfway into the left lane.

"What you're still doing in Mystic." She said. She had backed off a little when I flinched so she was looking forward now.

"I had nothing better than to do." I said simply, which was true.

"How about class RED?" She said, annoyed. I didn't answer. "Did you get arrested again?" She sighed.

"Yeah." I said, nonchalantly. Some cops caught me in Luke's bar where he mixed me a drink. I was already drunk, but it was the bar where I got in trouble.

"Oh Rachel," She said sadly. "Why?" She knew why, I had told her last time, but I knew she wanted me to stop.

No, I'm not an alcoholic, I just have some rough days.

"No reason Anna." I snapped, turning the car, heading home. Still that same house I moved into at 1 AM.

"Oh sure. You know what? I have a theory about you." She argued, her voice still smooth like we could be talking about the weather. I froze up, her theories about me were always right. I didn't want to deal with this, I had a splitting hangover, I was stressed to the point my back was almost as knotty as Annie's (she gets too stressed about her 3 jobs and 2 schools and 109% grade), the makeup made me feel horrible, and I hadn't slept last night. I couldn't handle her telling me what was wrong with me, even if she'd say it nicely and I'd feel better after.

Maybe it was years of being the mean girl finally rubbing off on how I acted to Annabeth, before I knew it the words tumbled out.

"Well," I pulled into the driveway, unbuckled, and grabbed my purse. "Why don't you go tell your friends-I mean your tree about it." I snarled, getting out and shutting the door. I felt horrible for saying it. I regretted every word as I sprinted into the house, using the key under the mat. I knew I was her best friend, and basically all she has. I couldn't turn and look at her. I already knew what she looked like. Her eyes wide in horror, tears pooling at the bottom, biting her bottom lip, and loose curls falling in her face.

_I'm a monster. _I thought, wishing there was some vodka in this house. That would help.

"Heyyyyyy RED!" The twins said from their spot on the couch, playing video games. I waved one hand and hustled down to our room. The baby gate wasn't there anymore, when I was 11 Annabeth and I beaded 40 7 foot tall strings and hung them from the open ceiling. I shoved the bead sheet to the side, stumbling into the room, breathing hard. I was surprised at how normal it looked.

When we were considering sending Anna to Harvard 4 years ago I had been excited that I could make our room how I liked it.

Then they decided she should do four years of college online alongside high-school so she could still stay and babysit the twins and do the chores.

**FLASHBACK**

_I heard a loud scream from Annabeth upstairs. It had been just me and her in the house at the time and I had raced up the stairs, expecting to find a spider, but instead my wallflower of a little sister was spinning and dancing and squealing around the kitchen. I was in shock, this was easily the happiest I'd ever seen her. She noticed me and froze._

"_Why so cheery?" I asked, laughing at how her frizzy poof of curls made her look a little crazy._

"_I'm leaviiiiinnnnnnngggggggg forever and ever and ever RED!" She said, squealing again. I smiled at her._

"_That's my nerd!" I said proudly. I had no idea why she was leaving but I assumed her mom had called. Athena, yes - the all powerful head of the biggest architecture and engineering company - had given her son, Malcom, a job when he was 18, he was almost as smart as Annabeth. Annabeth had once told me years ago that would be amazing._

"_Oh I'm never coming back!" She said, spinning in a circle with her arms out._

"_Leaving me?" I said, fake pouting. She paused mid-circle, looking at me sadly._

"_You can visit me in Boston!" She assured me. "Only you though!" I paused. I thought Athena's headquarters were in New York and Chicago. They didn't even have a branch in Boston._

"_Boston?" I asked. _

"_Harvard!" She said happily. I paused. She's 12! She can't go to Harvard! She hasn't even been a high-school student!_

"_Woah." I finally managed to breathe out. Some days I felt like I was the only one who realized how brilliant my sister was. I just wanted to shake the world's shoulders and scream "SHE'S A GENIUS AND YOU DON'T CARE!" but this proved that the people who mattered knew how smart she was._

"_Yeah! Frederick and Susan won't care. They won't even notice." She said. I grinned, the selfish part of me (which is most of me) wanted her to stay. How would I survive High School? I ranted to her daily, she was basically the only reason I hadn't broken down yet. She seemed to read my mind. "You can call me whenever, I promise." I smiled, she looked really little right now. I gave her a big hug, picking up her skinny frame. I had packed on some muscle in cheerleading practice._

"_I'm so proud of you angel!" I said._

"_Since we don't know how she'll take it, everyone be very nice to Annabeth for a week or so okay?" Frederick said, explaining it more to the twins (who were 7 at the time) than to me (I was 15). I snorted, this was one of the most eventful weeks of her pretty little life. Harvard offered her a full-ride, with boarding, textbooks, and everything. She had actually screamed, and Frederick and mom are going to say no._

_I was livid._

_And they knew it._

_I had screamed at them for hours, the final "SHE DESERVES THIS!" still ringing in my ears. My pretty little sister was going to be crushed. There was nothing here for her. She was far too amazing for the crappy little town of Mystic. She and I planned on running to New York the second we could get out. Me, an artist, her, a rival architect of her mom. I'd change my phone number, she'd go by Anna._

_But no, she was being stifled right alongside me in this place._

_And she didn't even get a legacy like me. I would leave Goode High as their queen, with a posse and a string of broken hearts. _

_I accomplished something._

_And Annabeth did too, just she was going to not be allowed to do it._

_It sucked._

"_Where is she?" Matthew asked, impatient._

"_Library doofus." I answered, still glaring at Frederick. She was skyping an admissions officer at Harvard on the library's computer._

"_Be nice." Bobby snapped at me. I waved him off. My phone kept vibrating, all of my friends were going to a concert, it was my idea but Mom wanted me here, to help with Annabeth._

_Not like I would've gone if I knew she was going to have all of her dreams ripped away today. I always wanted to be there if something went wrong for her, she was there for me all of the time. I tried to ignore the thought that Zoë, Drew, Silena, Juniper (who was popular for 2 years then fell), Reyna, and Bianca, the new girl (Piper was still a tomboy and Calypso was in Middle School) were all staying in a hotel with some of the Senior guys and seeing a John Mayer concert without me._

_It wasn't easy with 100 texts per minute._

"_Rachel?" I jumped as Annabeth opened the front door and hollered for me down the stairs._

"_Yep?" I answered, suddenly hating how suffocating it was sitting on the couch in the living rooms with both twins and mom on it too. Frederick was in the recliner. Annabeth whirled and grew mortified, like she was scared of the fact her whole family - not just her step sister had heard her speak. I felt a pang in my heart, she had seemed excited, the meeting must've gone well._

"_Come and sit with us Annabeth." Mom said flatly. Annabeth swallowed and looked at me, I was too busy giving mom a "Why so creepy?" face. I got up from my spot on the couch, feeling suffocated, and leaned on the wall._

"_She can stand." I said harshly. I always hated how I always spoke for her._

"_Alright." Frederick said. "Um, Annabeth, sweetie, we've-" I cut him off._

"_No. I am NOT a part of this decision." I snarled. Annabeth sucked in a breath, she knew what was going to happen._

"_You've said that a million times RED." My mom said, I glared at her, she knew better._

"_You do not get to call me that." I snapped, about to lose it again. I was getting tired of yelling at them. My mom looked down at her lap._

"_Annabeth," Frederick started again. "We, excluding Rachel, have decided that it's not good for you to go to go to college now." I let out a vicious laugh. Not good for her? It's not good for them. They'd have to be real parents for the first time in their life! I turned to see her reaction. Her eyes were glazed over, her face void of emotion._

"_Okay." She said politely, picking her bag up off the floor._

"_Love you Annie!" Matthew yelled, running up and hugging her, trying to little to cheer her up. She gave him a sweet smile, not sad at all._

"_Yeah!" Bobby said, getting up and hugging her too. She gave them both kisses on the tops of their brunette heads. _

_How was she 12?_

_This is not right. Susan got up too._

"_Alright we made your favorite Annabeth!" Susan said. The name Annabeth sounding weird in her mouth. Annabeth nodded her blonde head at her._

"_Thanks Susan." She said kindly. Frederick followed her into the dining room. Matthew and Bobby let go of Anna and ran in screaming "FOOD!" I followed slowly. Trying to look her in the eyes, but she wouldn't meet my gaze._

_We walked in and sat at the table. Two extra chairs had been pulled up. I normally ate out somewhere with the girls and Annabeth ate at the library, in our room, or not at all so the table was crowded. I sat diagonally across from Annabeth, she was purposely not looking at me. _

"_Eat up!" Susan said proudly, carrying in a tray. It couldn't possibly have spaghetti on it, that's Annabeth's favorite food. She set it down and I stood up in anger._

"_Are you serious?" I growled, gesturing to the platter of Sushi. Not only was it _my _favorite food, not Anna's, she was horribly allergic to seafood. Bobby launched himself at a roll, bringing it back near Annabeth who fell off her stool (they were out of chairs) scrambling away._

"_What?" Mom said, obviously freaking out._

"_That's my favorite!" I said, upset._

"_Oh, well, um we can all eat this tonight and have Annabeth's tomorrow!" She said, looking at Annabeth who was standing against the wall, not going near the table. Last time she barely put a piece of salmon in her mouth and she had to stay overnight at the ER._

"_You have _got _to be kidding!" I yelled. Frederick gave me a stern look. I flipped him off._

"_Annie, let's go." I said, walking around the table and dragging her out. "Don't expect us back!" I yelled. Luckily I was 15 and had my learner's permit. I grabbed Frederick's car key off the hook, tossed Annabeth one of my coats and we left._

"_Where are we going?" She asked, 5 minutes in._

"_No clue." I responded._

_We ended up driving through this place called the Spaghetti Shack (using Susan's credit card to pay), and going to the drive-in movies._

_I had to make her hide in the back seat to get us into the R movie. I shouldn't have been allowed either but the person who was letting people in was a teen boy and I flirted our way in. It was a double feature, the first movie was a gorey rage-filled thing that Annabeth pointed out all the unrealistic points, and the second was a comedic romance that made me cry. After the second movie it was midnight but we didn't want to go back. So we drove way out to the outskirts of town and laid on the roof of the car, pointing out constellations._

"_That one looks like Zoë." I said. She laughed. __**[A/N: SORRY I HAD TO!]**_

"_You mad?" I asked finally. We had avoided the topic for hours now._

"_Nah." She said._

"_Liar." I replied, poking her shoulder._

"_Harvard'll be there waiting. Maybe I'll go somewhere else. Who knows?" She said._

"_Well for the record, I'm pissed." I said. She nodded._

"_Ready to get rid of me already?" She asked. I laughed and put my arm around her little 12 year old shoulders._

"_Can't wait." I joked. She glared at me. "No, I just think you want it." I said, squeezing her shoulders._

"_I want a lot Rachel." She said, like it was no big deal._

"_Like a boyfriend?" I said slyly, grinning at her._

"_No! Jesus Christ Dare!" She said, rolling her eyes._

"_It's actually Rachel Elizabeth, but whatever floats your boat." I said shrugging. _

"_I think you mean whatever floats your ark." She replied. I burst out laughing. My laugh is horrible, I snort a lot. I didn't care._

"_We're so weird." I told her, wiping tears from my eyes, glad I had opted out on the eyeliner today._

"_Oh well." She said. We fell into comfortable silence._

"_Shooting star!" I yelled. _

"_No such thing." She said, not even looking up at it. "They're meteorites falling to the-"_

"_Annie?"_

"_What?"_

"_Shut up." I said, smiling. She laughed, looking up too._

"_Rachel?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_That's an airplane." I shoved her shoulder while she burst out laughing._

"_Quit being so smart."_

"_Never."_

**END OF FLASHBACK**

I stared dumbly at our room. There was our bunk-bed that we got a year after I moved in. I noticed that she still slept on the top bunk and left mine be. She hadn't taken down my hundreds of pictures I had taken of my friends and I, or my paintings that were hung in poster frames. I smiled at the biggest 5 that depicted these amazing skyscrapers Anna had designed. I brushed my hand against the forms of 2 girls.

When I paint it's like Annabeth's spacing off, except I barely remember what I was thinking. I had always wondered why I painted my natural orangey color of hair in a frizzy poof of curls, I didn't own overalls either. I knew why I drew Annabeth with her blonde hair down, her arms out and a blue dress flaring out, she had on Converse like she always wanted. She was dancing like she had been in the kitchen that day when she was so happy. There was a couple guys standing against the building and somewhere deep down I knew that they loved us. I wondered if she'd let me take one of these back to my dorm.

I knew she would.

She does everything for me. I shook my head and glanced at her desk, which was actually a folding table she had found at a garage sale. It was covered in piles of papers. She was studying a few subjects at her online college, keeping her busy, so I was surprised when it wasn't college stuff on her desk.

"ENGLISH 1 LESSON PLANS" was on the top of one sheet. "JUNIOR HONORS ENGLISH GRADEBOOK" was on a notebook. I was confused, had she stolen them?

"Snoop much?" I whirled to find Anna in her disgusting sweater and giant jeans standing next to the bead doorway. Her face was blotchy but she seemed otherwise okay.

"Sorry." I muttered.

"S'okay." She sighed, setting her bag down.

"Why do you have these?" I gestured to the gradebooks and stuff. She looked up to see what I was gesturing.

"Doing a favor for someone." She muttered.

"Who?" I said, furrowing my recently waxed eyebrows.

"Blofis." She said, pulling a pencil out of her bag.

"Percy's dad?" I asked, surprised.

"Stepdad." She corrected thoughtlessly. I smiled at how she knew that.

"Aww I ship it." I said quietly. She glared at me, looking bewildered.

"No." She snapped, pulling a stack of essays toward her and starting to grade. How'd she do it all?

"Yep." I said, popping the _p_. "Percabeth is now my OTP." She broke her pencil lead and groaned.

"Never say that ever again." She snarled. I licked my lips and sat down on the clear edge of the table. I got really close to her ear.

"Perca_beth." _I made sure to accentuate the nickname he had given her. She glared at me again. "You like him." I said proudly. I was pretty good at reading these sort of things. I was too excited my mouse of a sister finally liked a guy to care that he was the most untouchable guy in her school who wouldn't date in high-school.

"Do not." She argued, her face red.

"Want me to do your hair Monday? Maybe you can come shopping after the girls leave." She set down the stack of papers harshly.

"No Rachel." She tried to look determined, but I could see her crumbling. I raised my eyebrow as we had a stare-down, she groaned. "Just the hair!" She snapped. I squealed.

"Yay! My little sister is a girl!" I said, giving her a big hug and mussing up her hair.

"My big sister is a diva." She said, but she was starting to smile.

"You know you love me." I said. She scoffed in response. "And _Percccyyyyyyyyy toooooo!_" I sang, getting up and skipping over to my wall of pictures, I knew where every one of them was and quickly plucked one off the wall.

"What are you doing RED?" She asked, not looking at me. I grinned and shoved the picture in her face. It was of the pool party Piper had thrown for me last year at her mansion's pool. It was awesome. but one of him Charlie and Jason standing side by side. They were both laughing really hard. I was sitting on Percy's left shoulder and Jason's right. Silena was sitting on Percy's left and Charlie's right. They had just won football Championships and Silena and I being the 2 head cheerleaders decided it would be an awesome picture. It had turned out great.

He's really hot.

Annabeth blushed at the picture at first but then smiled, like she thought it was adorable.

"Keep it." I told her. She shook her head.

"No way, put it back." She replied.

"Alriggggghhhhhttttt. I sang mockingly.

A few hours later as I was walking down from dinner I found her with a book on her lap, sitting on my bed, but she wasn't reading. She was biting her lip and looking at the wall with the picture on it. They had just won football Championships and Silena and I being the 2 head cheerleaders decided it would be an awesome picture. It had turned out great.

Wow I miss High School.

Annabeth was smiling fondly at the photo.

That's when I figured it out, that's how I could repay her for all she'd given up for me.

I could help her get Percy Jackson.

**THERE YOU GO! CHAPTER 6!**

**I know it sucked and there wasn't much Percabeth and Annabeth was OOC and there were too many flashbacks but I needed you guys to get Rachel a little better. **

**I'm really sorry it's so bad...I tried to make it better but I've had a crappy week so I wasn't in the mood for cheery reading.**

**Shinny Star: Wow you're a prompt reviewer! Good for you! Ah your wish is my command and at some point in the story (meaning not now) Luke and Annabeth may meet. Your enthusiasm really cheers me up so thanks!**

**Guest: ADHD attacks are freakin hard to write so in glad you enjoyed it! I plan on leaving most couples. I'll keep Jeyna going for a while but I have a lot of pulls for Jasper...I promise Reyna will be okay with it though!**

**SilverHuntresses: Hmmm, Rachel and Octavian may be possible...I wasn't planning on it but I'll definitely give you some fluff/flirting. Jasper might happen, I'm glad you liked Percy's POV! I love writing him, it makes me happy.**

**daughterofposeidon2001: hmmm...Thalico. I'm not sure I can pull that off, she's 17, he's 14, and SPOILER ALERT FOR HOH gay so I don't know if I'll bend canon that much. But they will be friends!**

**WOW544: Jiper is a VERY likely ship! Thanks!**

**Forever-Fangirl-PJO-HP: Update I shall!**

**A the Invisible: Hi favorite reviewer! Thanks for your input! I think Leo and Piper will stay friends for now...unless tons of people beg for it! I'm glad you liked the Poseidon and Sally story! THANK YOU SO MUCH YOUR REVIEW LITERALLY MADE MY SUCKY DAY 400 TIMES BETTER! **

**UnexpectedChair: I love your name btw. Jasper, as I said before is probably gonna happen! YAAAY Frazel! Caleo sounds good...but I'm scared of the sword made of analytic cheese...your actual review was hilarious thank you so much!**

**Guest: Hmm...review #2 for Liper...we'll see. Thanks!**

**HD Shoryu: Thank you! I'll consider Leyna and Jasper. I bet Jasper will happen!**

**Tom Marvolo Riddle 2: You're so formal and perfect it's like you're a robot making nice reviews! I'm totally not against same sex couples for the story! Since you had the most ideas I assure you that at least one will happen!**

**LavenderBooks: Thank you :3**

**Guest: Hmm I'll take those into consideration!**

**Book-shelfdivided: Hello love! I'm glad I updated too! Sorry this one took so long :-( I wasn't prepared for 20+ reviews on one chapter! Thalico seems to have a lot of votes...THANKS!**

**Guest: Jiper is likely thank you!**

**Sherlock-Jim-Stole-the-TARDIS: Right? Took me long enough!**

**romeforevah: Noted! Thank you!**

** -M.M.E: Thanks darling!**

**Jedi1: Why thank you!**

**Same Guest: Haha thanks!**

**damnant quod non intelligunt: that is an enjoyable name! Thank you for your beautiful review!**

**Goddess of Fangirls: Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! As for Octavian...he's been mentioned 2 times, he's in Annabeth's AP English and he and Rachel dated in her senior year (there was a flashback) I'll add a little more of him!**

**xxPockyStraw21xx: um...Okay? Haha, I'll try to have that.**

**Cokeerrr: I dunno if I got the right amount of e's and r's in your name, sorry if I'm wrong! Thanks for the review!**

**Don't forget to vote for ships you want!**

**Also, tell me what characters you like!**

**REVIEW PLEASE!  
love you guys!**

**-Lili**


	7. Death by Embarrassment

**You guys just keep shocking me with review amounts don't you?! I feel like I should hug you all! I'll put review responses at the bottom again!**

**I'm glad you're still liking it! Also, I just realized, we're 7 chapters in and it's **_**still **_**the same day! Talk about taking it slow! THERE WILL BE PERCABETH THIS CHAP EVEN THOUGH ITS RACHEL AT THE BEGINNING!**

**Also, I have now picked the couples! Rachtavian, Jeyna, and Thalico will NOT be happening. I'm very very sorry but I cannot write Rachtavian (I'll give you guys flashbacks of when they were a couple though...I promise.) Jeyna didn't get enough votes (sorry guys). And Thalico...wrong ages and my Nico is gay. I'm sorry if you wanted one of those 3! The rest will be a surprise!**

**I'm gonna stop bothering you guys with this! **

**I don't own PJO.**

**Happy reading!**

**ANNABETH'S POV**

I do not like _like_ Percy Jackson.

He'd be a cool friend.

But, obviously, that's impossible, I mean, I've already tested my luck by being Rachel Elizabeth Dare's little sister and best confidant, being _Percy freakin Jackson's _friend too? Ha. No way.

Sometimes life will make you want something, but you just can't have it. That happens to me a lot. For example: my mom, a happy family, a voice, some confidence, friends, invisibility, Harvard...and now, I guess, Perseus Jackson.

I hope my "Happy Ever After" doesn't end up on that list, but I have a feeling it will. Rachel's has so far and she's 1,000 times better than me. I sighed and shook my head, I should go to bed, but I was hoping Rachel would've joined me by now.

I was laying on the roof above Susan and Frederick's balcony, staring at the stars. Rachel had found that she could get up here when her boyfriend in Freshman year needed to be hidden. Then we went up one time, and it's kind of a cool place.

"Why are you up here so late? It's freezing." I grinned as I heard Rachel's voice behind me. That had been the whole point, all I wanted was to talk to her. Yes, we talked in the car and in our room, but that didn't get us very far. I needed to know why she went into the school, what had gone wrong in New York, why she was here. If I left here I'd never come back. She said she wouldn't either, but Mystic is where she's at.

"I felt like it." I said, patting some shingles beside me, gesturing for her to join me.

"Oh my little Robot Annie _felt _like something? I'm appalled." She said, but sat anyways. She had on a thick coat and had changed out of her professional outfit and traded it for fleece PJs.

"Should be." I joked, grinning at how her hair was starting to lose it's straightness and curl up into bouncy springs.

"What're you thinking about?" She asked, looking at the stars. There was a running pattern with us, we liked traditions. A lot. Maybe it's because our lives have changed too much too often and we need constants badly. Looking at the stars was one ever since she and I went gazing that day I wasn't allowed to go to Harvard.

"I'm trying to not think, like some people say they can do." I said slowly.

"How's that working out for you?"

"Horribly." She laughed, her awkward, snort-filled, adorably real laugh. I did too.

"Good. If you stop thinking the world stops spinning." She said.

"That's a lot of pressure." I tried to joke but we both kinda got awkward after that. Pressure had always been something we had a lot of and hated. I tried to bring up the topic I was really interested in - her. "Got a NYC boyfriend yet?" I asked, nudging her shoulder. She nodded slowly.

"Yeah."

"Details." I ordered, turning to look at her. She rolled her eyes but I stayed strong.

"Fine," she groaned. "His name is Luke, he goes to Hunter College, is a bartender, blonde, blue eyes." She said like it was rehearsed. I tried not to look judgy, a bartender? I nodded slowly?

"When'd you start dating?" I asked, my voice steady, waiting for her to tell me it was a couple days ago and she was thinking of breaking it off.

"Three weeks ago." I froze, _woah, _one more week and she would beat her record. She dated that horrible Octavian for a month last year.

"Is he nice?" I said, actually feeling proud of her. She burst out in laughter, like that was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. Was he not nice? "What?" I asked defensively. She finally calmed down enough to answer me.

"It's just _everyone _I know would ask if he's hot or ask if we'd done it." I felt a little sad, I don't think those are important things in a guy honestly.

"Oh," I said awkwardly.

"Ah that's why I love you Annie." She said, giving me a side hug. "So sweet, you care about the important things." She squeezed my shoulders then let go. I still felt all warm and fuzzy knowing she loved me. I mean, yeah she's my sister and kind of has to, but she sometimes seems like she hates me. For instance, earlier in the car.

"So?" I said, prompting for an answer.

"Oh yeah, um sorta?" She said, like she wasn't sure.

"What do you mean?" I asked, becoming wary, remembering why Octavian had been her longest boyfriend.

_We accept the love we think we deserve._

That quote popped into my head. Rachel would date some great guys, but she always couldn't stand it, she'd ruin them. She'd see that they were sweet and saw how pretty she was and wanted to give her the world. She'd get scared, she didn't feel like she was good enough. She'd break it off harshly every time, breaking the guy's heart.

How to be a Heartbreaker became her anthem. She _destroyed_ every good guy in Goode High. She'd always come home, and sit sobbing for an hour or two, saying how she's a monster. Then I'd tell her it was ok. She would nod, snap out of it. Blast that song and get back to normal. After a while she had perfected a system. She was prettier than ever before, she found ways to cheat the dress-code, she was _never_ interested in any of the guys here. They all thought they could be the one to crack her, see her really, make her fall in love. Soon she was a prize, and they became competitive.

She was this deadly weapon of mass destruction who'd make a guy feel loved and special, then he'd do the same, and she'd dump them on their loving butts.

That's why Octavian had been with her for so long.

**FLASHBACK**

"_This is your room?" He asked distastefully. I was hiding at the top of the stairs, spying on Rachel and her new boyfriend, Octavian. She was way out of his league. He was in Honors Classes, a junior, stick thin, in no sports, had no friends, but somehow, he had landed RED, a gorgeous, popular, challenge._

"_Yeah." She said, also disdainfully. I felt a little sad as she looked so judging at our room. We spent so much time making it pretty. I knew she was just acting - saving face, but I wanted to yell at her._

"_So..." He said awkwardly. Looking at the wall, bare now because Rachel didn't want anyone to see her paintings._

"_Where are we going tonight?" She asked eagerly. He groaned. He had asked her out on a date and today was the day._

"_Uh I don't know, you pick." I wanted to smack him. He was the worst one yet. I couldn't see them anymore, they were too far around the corner._

"_Oh.." She said, surprised. She was used to guys who had pre-planned candlelit picnics, fancy restaurants, romantic serenading stuff - she must've been shocked. "A movie?" She suggested._

"_Sure." He didn't sound excited. She could do so much better._

"_Ooh there's a romantic one in 40 minutes!" He seemed surprised at her enthusiasm, though so was I._

"_Let's go then." He said, did I mention he has a nasally voice? Ew._

"_Okay!" She said, I heard the bed squeak as she got up._

"_Don't you want a jacket?" He said. She stammered for words before grabbing one. I knew she thought he'd loan her his. They came up the stairs as I hid behind another wall. He didn't open the door for her, the house or the car one. _

_Now, don't get me wrong. Not all guys have to be gentlemen, but this was weird. He seemed to think of her as an afterthought._

"_No please no." I whispered to myself._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

She had had her fair share of players, but Octavian was just a jerk. I hated it most when she dated a player. The second they started dating all they wanted to do was be the first to break up with the other. To be dumped is shameful.

Rachel always won. She'd break every player who dared challenge her. It was horrible, but she apparently couldn't take it.

My sister's not perfect, by any means, but I don't think she's a bad person for all that. If you could see how she sobbed after each and every one you wouldn't either. Her ways were flawed that's for sure. I snapped back to reality as she began to talk.

"You know him." She said factually.

"I what?" I said, shocked.

"_Luke." _She enunciated, filling the name with meaning. I processed the Lukes I'd known. Then it dawned on me.

"Castellan?!" I screeched in horror. She nodded.

"Yeah, I ran into him at a coffee shop actually." She said, laughing.

"Details." I demanded. Luke had been her first ever boyfriend, in 5th grade- the one who broke the vase. He's 3 years older than her. I liked to blame him for why she hated guys.

"What else is there to know?" She said defensively.

"Why?" I said, my voice cracking. He had been expelled a few months after they broke up and his whole family up and left to LA I thought. She was punishing herself again, I knew it.

"Because he asked me to dinner, we had fun, and it was really great." She sounded sincere, but it might have gone downhill from there.

"Is he why you got arrested?" She asked. I just imagined him serving her drink after drink at the bar.

"No." She snapped. "He only made me one drink, my NYC friends got me drunk."

"Who're they?" I asked, surprised.

"There's Ethan, who's Luke's best friend; Khione, but she goes by Kia; Castor and Pollux who work at Luke's bar too; um, Monica, who hates everyone and everything but is pretty fun; and...yeah that's it." She listed them off, counting on her manicured fingers. I nodded, wanting to change the subject.

"What _did_ you go into the school for today?" I said finally. She sighed.

"I guess I've held off on telling you for long enough." I nodded, she looked away, staring at the shingles underneath us. "I asked for a job." She said quietly, choking at the end.

"What?" I said, surprised.

"I asked for Mr. Brunner to give me a job. There, as a teacher." She sounded ashamed. I took a breath, trying to not ask her how she thought that would work when she doesn't have a degree.

"Wow." I finally said. "Um...what'd he say?" I knew very well what he would say.

"I have to graduate, then we'll talk." She said grumpily.

"Ah, yeah. What position did you want?" I said curiously.

"Art teacher, taking Mrs. Solace's position since she'll retire soon." She said like it was obvious. As soon as she said that I realized how perfect that would be.

"You'd be great at that." I breathed out. She smiled sadly at me, starting to get up.

"Oh well." She shrugged.

"You can do it you know." I said, taking her hand she offered me.

"What?" She looked surprised.

"You could graduate and be an awesome art teacher." I said, and I believed it.

"Don't lie Annie, I can't graduate as much as I can keep this stupid hair straight for a full day." She yanked on her now springy hair. It was closer to natural now but not as curly, years of flat irons and perms had ruined the natural poofiness of it. Her hair was still noticeably the wrong shade of red. Rachel is a ginger, but her hair was a deep red with darker roots, making her pale skin look beautiful.

"You can graduate." I told her. She scoffed.

"Okay Anna Banana." She said. I rolled my eyes at the name but decided to leave the topic alone for now.

"Excited for tomorrow?" I said, trying to sound perky, instead of judgy that she was going shopping with the minions.

"Huh? Oh yeah...no." She said, I looked at her, surprised.

"Why not? It's your girls!" I said enthusiastically. She snorted.

"Don't call them that. Besides, all we're gonna do is talk about _all _the drama that's been going on at Goode and they'll ask me about college and all that." She said obviously dreading it. "Oh by the way, you gotta catch me up on the Goode drama." She said, patting my back.

"Why? I thought they were gonna tell you." I said.

"Oh they are but they'll exaggerate and twist it and I need to seem like I'm still in charge." She said like it was obvious, she started to lower herself to the balcony, headed to our room, I bet.

"Okay, um well, Juniper-" And we spent the next 5 hours talking about life, sitting on her bed in our room, I made popcorn around 3 AM, and the topic of Percy wasn't brought up.

Thank God.

"Rach, get up." I said, it was noon already and she was still out, I was working on homework since 6 AM, we had finally fell asleep at 5 AM so I let her sleep for a while. She had to be to the mall by 2 and I knew it would take her a while to get ready looking at her hair and her face.

"Lukey nooo lemme sleep." I took a step back. Luke woke her up? I didn't want to know why.

"RED get up!" I snapped, walking forward and shaking her shoulders, she swatted my hands away.

"I tired." She said in baby-talk. I groaned, turning so I could wake her up like I used to have to. I grabbed her headphones off their spot on the floor, scrolled through the list of songs on her iPod before I found it in "Annie's Playlist" I had given her some songs she needed a while back, and then I shoved them around her ears, and flicked the volume to full. I could hear "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World **[A/N: THIS SONG THOUGH 3] **blasting.

"AHHH!" Rachel sat up screaming, holding her ears, throwing the headphones off viciously.

"Mornin' angel." I said mockingly.

"Shut up." She snarled. Rachel's not a morning person, at all.

"It's 12, you have to be at the mall in 2 hours." She gasped, throwing off the blankets and running out of bed.

"Are you serious? I have to get lunch, do _this,"_ She gestured to her hair in distaste. "Find _some_ form of successful looking clothes, and pile on makeup like no tomorrow in _two hours?"_ She was starting to panic.

"I'll help you." I offered, I had been planning on going to see my grandma at the hospital today, but that could wait a couple hours. She nodded frantically. She sometimes got like this, panicking over a little thing until she collapses or succeeds in fixing it.

"Okay...um you find clothes and food?" She said, bustling towards the bead doorway, headed to the bathroom upstairs. I nodded, terrified at the thought of picking her clothes. It took me 45 minutes, she was still in the bathroom, before I pieced together a green silk dress, open-toes stilettos (of course), and a light jacket. I smiled proudly, very professional, and rushed it up the flight of stairs to her.

"A dress?" She said, trying not to look disappointed but failing miserably. One eye was all done up with eyeliner and mascara and shadow while the other showcased the normal side, with her pale sparse eyelashes and freckles on her eyelids, it was odd to say the least.

"You wore one yesterday!" I argued.

"Exactly, I can't look the same _two _days in a row!" She said, exasperated, I glared at her then we both started laughing. "Oh God I sounded so ridiculous!" She squealed. I nodded at her, laughing myself.

"So seriously, is this okay?" I asked.

"Um.." I could see it on her face, it wasn't, not at all.

"Don't spare my feelings RED, I don't care." I assured her, she reluctantly shook her head.

"Okay...um...obviously I don't know what I'm doing, how bout I straighten _that_," I gestured to the mass of curls. "and then you get your outfit?" She nodded. I had only used a straightener once or twice for her, but it wasn't too difficult. I winced looking at how fried the ends were from constant straightening.

"You should straighten my hair more often, you're good at it." She said, making that face all girls make putting on mascara.

"Ha yes I shall move to New York as your personal hair stylist!" I said, straightening the part behind her hair.

"Ah it's a deal! Hired!" She said, poking my arm with the mascara thingy. (what is that thing? Mascara stick? Brush? Applicator? I dunno.) There was a spot of black gunk on my arm.

"RED!" I snapped, trying to rub it off but it just spread.

"Oh no! My sister has touched makeup, she's gonna melt!" Rachel said dramatically.

"Can it half-head." I said, glancing at how half of her hair was poofed afro-style curls and the other was sleek and shiny. She glared at me as I kept trying to rub the dumb stuff off.

"Lemme help." She said nicely. Part of me thought I shouldn't trust her, the other thought I was right.

"No it's okay!" I assured her, backing up. She smiled evily.

"I insist." She said sweetly.

_Run._

I listened to my subconscious and raced away. I'm quicker than her, but I tripped as I hit the kitchen.

"Ha!" She said as I stumbled, she grabbed my arm.

"I really really highly dislike you right now!" I snapped at her, trying to wriggle away, it was no use.

Long story short there was mascara _all _over my face. It ended with both of us laughing and her washing it off for me. She's a really cool big sister.

An hour and 45 minutes later she was in tight white skinny jeans, those stilettos I had picked, and a black top that looked professional and smart except was showing off her stomach in the middle and eating the sandwich I had made for her.

"Thank you so much Anna." She said, setting her plate in the sink and giving me a hug. I'm 5'3" and Rachel is 5'8", add 6 inch stilettos, and suddenly she's a foot taller than me and a hug feels weird, like I'm a toddler or something.

"No problem, now go rule the mall." I said, shoving her purse at her.

"Please tell me you're not gonna stay here the whole time." She said, walking to the door.

"I'll go visit grandma." I assured her, trying to usher her out before she could offer me a ride.

"Not _my_ grandma right?" She said, her celery eyes looking confused.

"No Rachel." I sighed.

"Good cause she died 4 years ago or something." She said, looking thoughtful.

"I know RED, now _go_. You gotta be on time!" I shoved her but she barely budged.

"Need a ride?" She asked, I groaned.

"No I'm good." Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to get rid of her, but I seriously did not just bust my butt for 2 hours trying to get her ready for her to dawdle.

"Alright, bye Anna!" She said, stepping out. I groaned, I had to do something.

"Rachel!" I hollered, she turned around, her real smile on her face, not the one she used around others.

"Yep?" She popped the p.

"You're not being _you _enough." I told her, she looked surprised and then nodded at me, expression wiped from her face.

"Thank you." She said to me, sounding scathing and like she didn't mean it. I never understood how quickly she could flip her personality.

"There you go." I told her, she turned around and strutted the popular walk to the car, she was taking Susan's. The rest of the family had headed to the carnival at 9 this morning.

As soon as she pulled out I went back in, shut all the lights off, grabbed my dumb useless glasses, and left too. The hospital was like 8 miles away down some weird roads that I didn't go down so it normally took me an hour to get there. I began walking, it was really humid out and soon enough my sweater (dark green and _itchy)_ was stuck to me with sweat. The tank top underneath was cakes to my back. The jeans I was wearing fit me better than yesterday because they were Rachel's not Malcom's, but they still drug on the ground and looked huge. I kept walking, regretting the idea that I should bring my things because that bag was heavy.

"Annabeth?" I jumped as the blue Prius pulled up beside me.

"M-Mr. Blofis?" I said, trying to regain my composure.

"Hey Hun, where you headed?" I always thought it was weird when the English teacher used bad grammar.

"Oh-um, nowhere?" I tried, hoping he'd leave it be.

"Nonsense." He waved me off, unlocking the car. "I'm headed to the hospital, is where you're headed around there?" As a matter of fact, yes.

_It's so hoooottttttt._ My body moaned.

_You need to toughen up and not take a ride from Percy Jackson's stepdad. _My head snarled back.

_Percy isn't with him. Go._ I listened and nodded at Paul numbly. I'm trying new things that scare me.

"Great!" Paul said. I noticed how horrible he looked the second I got in the car. He was in a sweatshirt that stretched horribly across his stomach, the slacks he had been in yesterday, sandals (with socks), his sparse neatly combed hair splayed out, showing off a bald spot, and he smelled of booze. Not like he was drunk, just like he had forgotten to brush his teeth after a whiskey last night.

"How are you?" I asked unnecessarily, closing the car door and trying not to sit on the McDonald's bag in the passenger seat.

"Good. Good good good. You?" His voice squeaked horridly, he was anything but good.

"I'm fine." I said, holding tight to the passenger door handle because Paul was a horrible driver. All of this was so out of character for him. Last year he was a put together English Teacher in slacks and sweater vests, he had tawny brown hair, a booming laugh, and a very put together plan. How could this wrinkled, tired, grey-haired, tubby man come from that? We sat in awkward silence as I contemplated how bad his downfall had been. We pulled into the hospital parking lot and he attempted to smile at me.

"Thank you Mr. Blofis." I said quietly, opening the door. He reached back and grabbed a bag of fast food I hadn't noticed in the back seat.

"No problem Annie." I winced at him calling me that but managed a thankful smile. He locked the Prius and it beeped annoyingly. We began to walk away (I decided to head to the west entrance since he was going to the main one).

"Oh!" I turned around, we were 20 feet away now. He walked to where I was standing frozen. He looked at me weirdly for a second and I became _very_ worried for his sanity. "Huh, look at that, Percy's right." I began to cough at Percy's name. What was Percy right about? What did it have to do with Paul staring at me? What made it so interesting? Finally I spluttered a word out.

"What?" My eyes must've been watering from so much coughing. Paul had backed up but was still looking at me.

"Oh last night he asked me if I knew you, called you pretty...I hadn't noticed, but yeah, I guess you are." I gulped for air, my mouth like a fish. There were so many _What?'s_ rolling through my mind as Paul walked away. I was frozen there for a good ten minutes. Percy said I was _pretty_? He brought me up in a conversation? Oh dear God. I could feel the heat in my cheeks and the beat of my heart. I swallowed, trying to process this. Though Paul is really off, maybe he had finally gone wacko or heard Percy wrong or something.

Yeah, that's it.

I convinced myself that my teacher was insane and began to go towards the West Entrance.

"How may we help you?" A brunette lady in yoga pants and a polo said from a small desk. She was the only one in there so her use of "we" was weird.

"Uh I know where her room is." I muttered, heading to the stairs. Elevators are really awkward if a stranger jumps in.

"Floor four." I muttered to myself, beginning to climb. I was still sweaty from the walk so it didn't really help my case.

"Watch out!" I heard a guy yell as I opened the 4th floor door. I turned to find a sock flying at my face. "Sorry..." The guy muttered. I had caught the sock after it bounced off the side of my face so I was just confused.

"Uh.." I began then I looked to see who the guy was. "Michael!" I said happily. He had been the nurse when I got hypothermia and he helped my grandma somedays.

"Annabelle!" He joked, my grandma had problems remembering my name and a few months ago she and I spent an hour saying:

"Anna_beth."_

"Anna_belle."_

Over and over. He thought it was hilarious but we both disagreed.

"How're you Mikey?" I said, using her nickname for him, he gave me a half hearted glare with his dull blue eyes. I wasn't a huge fan of his, he had a bit of an ego because he graduated nursing school early and all that. He was nice enough though.

He's 22, 5'6" but gives off the feeling that he's shorter because he slumps his shoulders, he has spikey bleach blonde hair, and a tan always covered in a sunburn, he was pretty stocky. I secretly ship him with Rachel.

"Good good except for the fact your grandma is throwing her socks at people." He said, sighing, that's when I realized that she was in a wheelchair about 10 feet away getting a scolding from a seemingly 30 year old blonde nurse named Kylla.

"Oh no." I sighed, looking at the sock. "How's she doing?" I asked him. Michael wasn't the easiest person to talk to but I had gotten used to it.

"Um her hip is healing pretty well..." He said trailing off and glancing at her.

"You know what I mean." I said, giving him a _stop-avoiding-it_ look through my dumb glasses.

"Uh...I don't know how to say it." He muttered and I repeated my line from earlier.

"Don't spare my feelings." I like facts, hard truthful, tangible facts, that won't change. He sighed.

"Bad Annabeth, really really bad. She can't remember _anything_, she talks sometimes and you can't understand her. You should get your family in here soon cause it won't be long till she forgets all of you." He rushed out, his face flushed, I took a deep breath at the prospect of telling my father that he has to go see his mother that he couldn't care less about. I glanced at her, she was tapping her glasses on Kylla's arm. The nurse looked like she'd given up on talking sense into her.

"Alright, thanks Michael." My voice stayed steady and I mentally hi-fived myself.

"Yep." He said, patting my back. "We're taking her to the room, you coming?" I nodded, trying to not cry as I looked at my confused grandma.

**FLASHBACK**

"_Annabeth Minerva Chase that is no way for a lady to behave!" I was 5, a few months before Rachel would be coming, Grandma, who basically raised me for those first 5 years because my dad had no parenting skills. _

_I was so confused, I thought she'd praise me, we were at the playground (which I hated but dad had insisted that I go with Grandma), and a boy had just yanked my hair and I had only politely asked him to stop. Luckily he got bored and ran off but I thought I had handled it very well._

"_Why not Gramma?" I asked, massaging my head where he'd pulled my hair._

"_You don't let _anyone _walk all over you Blondie. You are in charge." She scolded, using her pet name for me. This woman was confusing._

"_I was being nice." I argued._

"_If you're nice your whole life you'll be bald!" She snapped. It took me a while to figure it out, she was referring to the hair pulling. "You see this head of hair?" She asked, leaning her grey head down. "Not a bald spot! That's cause your grandma doesn't let anyone mess with her!" She looked me in the eyes sternly._

"_Yes ma'am." I said softly._

"_Now your mother, there was a woman with a full head of hair. That woman was as war-ready as they come." She said scathingly._

"_That's good right?" I asked. I always imagined my mom was the best person, cause if I was like my dad then I'd be disappointed._

"_Oh sure, but not a lot of people liked her because of it." She rolled her blue eyes. "That woman." She scoffed._

"_Why not?"_

"_You're full of questions aren't you?" She asked with a smile. Not really a kind one, I don't think Grandma had ever looked kind in her life. _

"_Better than playing." I muttered, looking at my feet._

"_Don't mutter." She snapped. I looked up with wide eyes and nodded._

"_Yes ma'am." I said clearly and rather loudly._

"_Better. You don't like playing do you?" She asked, I shook my head, she got up from her bench. "Well then, what are we doing here? Let's go blondie." I nodded excitedly and reached up to grab her hand. She swatted my little hand away. "Strong ladies don't need to hold hands. You're too busy with work for that." She said, turning up her nose. I nodded again and put my hands to my side. _

"_Work?" I asked._

"_Housework, Yardwork, Paperwork, Busywork, Schoolwork, Social work, Messy work, all sorts of work. I never stopped working until retirement, neither should you. You'll get nowhere without it and soon you'll be like your dad, minimum wage job, one divorce down, girlfriend in New York with a kid too, spineless as a jellyfish and about as responsible as one." I don't know why that hit me so hard, but I thought about it all day after that and here I am 10 years later, always working. I never held my grandma's hand, always called her ma'am or Ethel, and no one pulled my hair ever again. _

_Though they never tried thank God or I wouldn't be brave enough to stop them._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

"Hey ma'am!" I said perkily as they rolled her up, heading to the room.

"Is that-Michael! Is that my little Anna?" She snapped, swatting Michael's arm.

"Sure is Mrs. Chase." He said smiling and handing her glasses back.

"How many times have I told you? I'm not married! Miss, Miss Larney, figure it out Yew!" We all winced, I bit my lip. Grandpa was still alive, but he was in a home down in Florida. I had nothing to do with that decision, but luckily Grandpa and her were about to divorce anyways before she got Alzheimers and he had that second heart attack.

"Sorry Miss Larney." Nor was Larney her maiden name, Larson was.

"Annabelle!" She said happily, looking at me, I swear she recognized me, Michael smirked at me and I glared as she gestured for a handshake. We never hugged, she believed in handshakes. I shook her hand. "Weak." She commented, looking at my hand. I rolled my eyes, of course it was weak, she had dug her nails deep into my hand so that I had indents, I wasn't really trying to function a good handshake at that point.

"Sorry Ethel." I said, massaging my hand.

"It's alright Anna dear." I raised an eyebrow at "dear" she doesn't call people dear.

"Okay ma'am." It took us a while to get her back in the hospital bed but after 15 minutes we succeeded. Michael and Kylla hi-fived.

"Nice to see you Annabeth." Kylla said, nodding at me and walking out.

"Yeah, I'll be in in a bit to check the vitals." Michael said dismissively, following Kylla out.

"I'm tired." Okay, spoiler alert: my grandma is a horrible cusser, every line she's said that I've mentioned has had at least one profanity in it. Just so you know.

"You can sleep, I'll read or something." I assured her.

"You're a good lady Annabeth. You speak up every once in a while and nothing'll stop you." She said drowsily, I smiled widely, she remembered my name, and she sounded normal, her eyes didn't look glazed. I did a small happy dance. "Go get grandma some water." She said, patting my elbow. I nodded and walked out, wondering where the closest place to get water was.

"I brought McDonalds for you." I whirled around to find Paul in the hall 20 feet behind me, talking to...Percy...of freaking course. I panicked and immediately hid behind an open door. I don't know why I didn't just run away, it was like I was trapped watching them.

"Thanks Paul." Percy replied taking the food. He was in the same jeans and shoes as yesterday, but he had a blue sweatshirt on with "JACKSON" on the back and his number "12" in block lettering. I knew that it was the swim team sweats.

"No problem. Hey, guess what?" Paul said, lightly punching Percy's shoulder. It was awkward, like Paul was trying to be Percy's buddy or something.

"Hmm?" Percy said through a mouthful of burger. I couldn't help but smile at his silliness.

"I saw Annabeth." My heart dropped and my stomach tied itself in knots. No no no stop it, Percy needs to forget I exist.

"Beth?" Percy asked surprised. I turned red at the nickname again.

"Yeah, you're right, she is pretty," I moaned and felt like vomiting.

"You hadn't noticed?" Percy asked, offering Paul a fry. He _had _meant that! I didn't know how to process those thoughts, it's like I shut down so I could listen.

"No not really. She looked really surprised when I brought it up." Paul chuckled. I couldn't see Percy's face but I had a feeling it was red too.

"You. Did. _What?"_ Percy said slowly, dropping a fry from his mouth. I never knew what Paul's response was because at that moment I heard something behind me. A nurse (chubby 50 year old woman with black hair) was bustling a man who looked about 30 through the hall. He was green as a cucumber and sweating bullets.

"Oh God." The man said, I whirled around, not realizing how close to me they were, and was met with vomit all over my sweater. I gagged, about to vomit myself, the man had his hands on his knees and the nurse looked horrified.

"I'm so sorry sweetie!" She said, her southern accent thick and soupy.

"I-it's okay." I lied, trying not to focus on the smell.

"Uh oh." The man said, her beady eyes widened.

"Oh no you don't!" She said, bustling him off to the bathroom where retching could be heard. I was left, in the middle of the hallway, covered in vomit, trying not to crawl into a hole and die.

"Annabeth?" I heard Paul ask. I felt the need to cry, oh God Percy will see me like this, my Grandma will be disappointed, Rachel will drive here tonight talking about murdering the guy who vomited on me no no no no no. A chant of no's went through my head as I heard Paul's squeaky sandals come up behind me.

"Annabeth Chase?" He tried again, I turned around slowly, tears in my eyes, feeling pathetic. Harvard wouldn't want me if they saw me now.

"Beth?" I started shaking as Percy set down his food and strode over, his eyebrows furrowed, looking as amazing as ever.

"Oh dear." Paul said, looking at my itchy, vomit covered sweater. I attempted to look at my feet like usual, but my chin would touch puke and- well no, I had to look up. "Um Percy?" Percy looked up from where he'd be looking at my hair with his sea green eyes.

"Yeah?" He asked, glancing at Paul, I was surprised he wasn't laughing at me.

"Do we have an extra shirt or something?" Paul asked. I snapped out of my catatonic state.

"No it's OK, I'm heading home." I lied, waving them off.

"C'mon Beth." Percy said, looking at me with puppy-dog eyes, my stomach tied in knots, my heart rate sped up again, I felt myself flush.

"Her name is _Anna_beth Percy." Paul said, smiling at me like he'd done me a favor.

"I know." Percy said, eyebrows furrowed. "It's a pet name." He said, winking at me. My knees turned to jelly. Paul looked between us for a bit.

"Um, okay...Annabeth come in here, Percy get a shirt." Paul then gestured for me to follow him into what I presumed was Sally's room, leaving Percy looking bewildered.

"Where am I supposed to find a shirt?" He asked, Paul ignored him, I shot an apologetic glance his way.

"Paul sweetie what's going o-oh!" A sweet lady's voice said as we walked in, I was still beyond embarrassed.

"Sally, this is Annabeth, we need to get her a shirt. Annabeth, this is Sally, my wife." I looked at the woman in the hospital bed. She was as pale as Nico Di Angelo, and her head was bald, but my god, she was pretty. She had sparkly blue eyes framed with long lashes like Percy's, her face was covered in smile lines and her mouth looked kind of permanently happy. She looked skinny as a twig, but tall, like a supermodel. She didn't look much like Percy, but she somehow reminded me of him. She seemed too young for wrinkly Paul.

"What happened?" She said in that motherly way.

"Someone didn't feel too good and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Paul explained.

"Oh sweetheart." She said sadly, looking at me knowingly and with pity. "Paul, where's Percy?"

"Looking for a shirt." He said, she sighed and rolled her eyes, giving him a wife look. "What?" He asked defensively.

"He _has _a sweatshirt on." She explained. I was confused, why did that matter? Paul seemed to understand though and walked out, looking for Percy I presume.

"How old are you Annabeth?" She asked, looking at me with those kind sparkly eyes.

"15." I felt myself say quietly. Her eyes sparkled even more, more mischievously this time.

"Paul has told me about you, you're the best student in your...Sophomore class right?" She was just trying to make conversation, but I wanted to cry more and more with each word. I finally choked some steady words out, keeping the tears in.

"Senior actually." I corrected her.

"I thought you said you were..." She looked confused.

"I skipped Freshman and Sophomore years." I explained. Her eyes widened.

"Wow. Good for you!" She said. She seemed genuinely proud. Only Rachel had acted like that.

"Found him." Paul said, dragging Percy in all his glory into the room.

"Hey mom, Beth." He smiled at both of us and I got red all over again.

"Hey love." Sally said, looking at Percy fondly. "Why don't you just loan Annabeth your sweatshirt and she can give it back to you at school on Monday?" I paled miserably. I couldn't show up to school with Percy Jackson's sweatshirt. That wasn't urgent and panicky enough, let me try again. THERE'S NO WAY IN HEAVEN OR HELL I WILL SHOW UP TO THAT GODFORSAKEN SCHOOL WITH THE MOST HOT, UNTOUCHABLE GUY'S SWIM TEAM SWEATSHIRT AND RETURN IT TO HIM! ...better? I was internally panicking.

"Um, I'll be here tomorrow, how about I return it then?" I asked, I hadn't even planned that, some time my brain just figures things out for me. I wasn't planning on being there on Sunday, but I definitely would if I had to.

"Okay sure whatever you want." Sally said, nodding at me. Percy was still looking between us confused. Sally gave him a motherly look. "Sweatshirt Dummy." She joked, looking at him.

"Oh!" Percy said and tugged off the hoodie.

His shirt rode up.

I literally about fainted.

"There!" He said breathlessly, handing me the sweatshirt, careful not to touch my own disgusting sweater. I noticed he had an old worn looking ACDC shirt on. Did he only own band shirts? I took it gingerly.

"The bathroom is over there." Sally said, pointing to a little door on the opposite wall.

"Thank you." I said, to both Percy and Sally. Sally smiled at me and Percy nodded.

The bathroom was sort of cramped, I looked in the mirror. My eyes were a little bloodshot, and my sweater looked even more terrible from that view. My hair was a mess of frizz.

"She's sweet." I heard Sally say, her voice muffled through the door.

"Yeah she is." I heard Percy's deeper voice respond. I saw myself blush in the mirror. I gingerly tugged off my sweater, gagging as it came near my face. I thought hospitals were supposed to help when something like this happened? Oh well.

"Too quiet though." I heard Paul comment. I could hear their responses but couldn't make out the words. I finally inched the sweater off, looking at all the holes and how badly it was stained, and swiftly threw it in the tall trash can. I looked at myself in the mirror again, my arms were red from being stuck in the itchy sweater and my hair was standing on end from pulling it off. The black tank top I had on thankfully looked unscathed. I glanced at the blue sweatshirt, feeling a sense of dread at putting it on. In one movement, like ripping off a bandaid, I grabbed it and yanked it on, hitting my wrist on the wall as I went.

"You okay?" Both Percy and Sally said.

"I'm fine." I assured them, looking at the red mark on my wrist. I gasped when I looked in the mirror. My hair had been tugged out of it's ponytail so the curly mass was spiraling around my shoulders and down my back. The sweatshirt was _huge, _but easily the softest and warmest thing I've ever worn.. It was baggy on Percy, but to me it went mid thigh, with sleeves waaaaay too long. The neckline fell off one of my shoulders. I yanked up the sleeve, and then began to look for my ponytail.

I bent down to examine the floor and that's when I caught a whiff of it. You'd think a high school boy's sport sweatshirt wouldn't smell too great, but it did. It smelt like that one time I went to the beach, clean like the hospital, and not surprisingly, pizza all rolled into one. I searched for my ponytail, finding it in the hood of the jacket. I sighed in relief.

I wound it around once, twice, _snap!_ It popped apart.

Long story short, I guess I have to wear my stupid hair down. I shoved my glasses on and walked out to find Paul asleep, his head on the table in the corner, sitting in a chair, snoring loudly; and Percy and Sally giggling at him. I stepped in quietly, careful not to wake him. They both looked up at me and I was surprised at how happy they looked. Sally looked mischievous and Percy looked really excited.

"Aw okay that's cute." Sally whispered. Percy nodded his head. I bit my lip as she waved me over. "Your hair is so pretty honey, why do you pull it back?" _Because I'm weak, because it's not pretty, because I hate it, because it get's in the way..._

"I dunno." I answered, surprising myself.

"You should stop that." Percy informed me, referring to the pulling it back. I couldn't look at him, not when his sweatshirt felt good and his t-shirt was washed out and his hair was messier than usual.

"Do you have very far to walk?" Sally asked.

"No." I lied, thinking of my 1 hour or so walk ahead of me.

"Okay..." She seemed to be thinking. "If you want Paul can give you a ride, it's just...well, he gets only a little more sleep than Percy, and I was going to give him a chance to rest."

"Oh no! It's um, it's okay." I assured her. "Thank you guys _so _much." I said earnestly, trying to convey how much I appreciated it. "I'll bring this back tomorrow." I said, pulling on the sweatshirt.

"Oh it's no problem sweetie! Bring it back whenever, no rush!" She assured me, opening her pale arms for a hug. Moms do give the best hugs, I've never been hugged by my mom, but Sally proved that. "Take care sweetie. Percy, walk her down please." Sally patted his arm and he nodded, smirking at me.

"C'mon blondie." He said, waving his arm. _Blondie._ Oh no.

"Grandma." I muttered, panicking. "Uh, I have to go say bye to my grandma." I said.

"Kay, you can on the way." He assured me.

"Bye Annabeth! It was nice finally meeting you!" Sally said, waving.

"Bye Mrs. Jack-" I began.

"Call me Sally sweetie." She said, smiling at me.

"Uh ok." I said. Percy gave his mom a kiss on the forehead and we walked out, him opening the door for me. My skin color is now just naturally red from how many times I blushed.

"M'lady." Percy joked, offering his arm, I noticed a tattoo peeking out of his sleeve and wondered what it was. I laughed a little, but didn't take his arm. "You've got a cute laugh." He commented.

**HAHAHA THE END NO MORE FOR YOU!**

**Jk sorry. I have had no time to write this week so sorry for the delay! **

**I hope you liked it!**

**Um, review answers:**

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**xxPockyStraw21xx: Ok! In this AU the ages are messed up - like 1/2 if not more of them are way different so yeah...in this Thalia IS older, Nico was not in the Lotus casino. Thanks though!**

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** -M.M.E: Of course I answered! I'll answer every comment...unless I get like 50 per chapter then I'll only answer ones with questions or that I want to respond to! Thank you very much!**

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**LordMouldyshourt/Willakarra: Oh! I dunno if all places have this, but Honors classes here go up to 5.0! So you can get a better GPA for doing good in more difficult classes! I personally have a 4.97. Thanks for your question! **

**yourBFF: Hi M&M! (For those of you who are confused, this is my friend in real life...in the outernet or whatever) Thanks love!**

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**I LOVE YOU GUYS YOU'RE SO GREAT!  
KEEP REVIEWING PLEASE! TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!**

**ALso, whose POV do you want next chapter?! It can be more than one!**

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**Lili**


	8. Walk Her Down

**Hi! I'm not even going to authors note very much, I don't own PJO or Passenger...**

**Happy Reading!**

**PERCY'S POV**

I never really understood why Jason, Frank, and Beckendorf always gave their girlfriends their clothes, I mean, it's obviously one of their favorites, and they just give it up. At first I thought guys were just being possessive, like "See that? See how MY name is on the back? See how SHE'S wearing it? See that I'M on the football team and probably jacked up?" then they don't have to say those things, it just mentally happens. Which is kind of a creepy move.

Then I thought the _girls_ were being possessive. For example, Katie has had Travis' red jacket for 4 years, it basically fits her now because he was a freshman when she got it. One time after a particularly nasty "breakup" he asked for it back...she went bat-crap crazy. Apparently that hoodie was a sort of sign saying "Mine. Don't even THINK about it. He gave me this, touch him and I'll give you a chunk of pulled out hair." And when he wanted it back it's like she lost all possession over him. Don't worry they got back together and she still wears the jacket when she's cold.

My last guess was that it was a sort of involuntary sign saying that you're just dating for the person to be dating you, like how a guy would date Rachel Dare. Basically a "This relationship will last about as long as Carly Rae Jepsen's career, but _everyone _is going to know that we're together." A break-up inevitably happens, and she gives the hoodie back, and all you have is a "RED wore this...in public!" to tell your geeky buddies a few days later, smelling her perfume.

But it's not any of that, well, sometimes it is, but they're not all true, some people do that, but I see why it's a universal symbol for "I truly like her." now at least.

Let me backtrack.

"Aw okay that's cute." Mom said. She was looking better than usual, less green, and her voice was stronger. I was still getting over how she was _laughing_ again, at Paul sleeping albeit, but she was giggling like she would a while ago, before the cancer. I turned to see what she was talking about and I couldn't agree more. Annabeth - well, sorta Annabeth, I associate Annabeth with ugly sweaters and tight buns, had changed into my sweatshirt. I was kind of weirded out by my mom being so eager that I pawn off my swim sweats to a stranger, she was definitely up to something, but I'm not complaining. I involuntarily nodded to agree with my mom.

I felt myself smile, little Beth looked a little less hidden now, even though my hoodie seemed to swallow her small frame up. Her princess curls were down, she had gorgeous golden hair, a little messy, very curly, kinda frizzy, but totally pretty.

_No. Uh uh Percy, shut up your brain._I told myself, feeling ridiculous. High School relationships are superficial and Annabeth is my opposite, none of it would ever work. After a mental pep-talk I decided it's okay to think she's pretty and cute, just I can't do anything about it.

"Your hair is so pretty honey, why do you pull it back?" That's my mom, straightforward yet sweet. I was wondering the same thing. Annabeth looked panicked, like she wanted to talk, I wondered if she knew how easy it was to tell she wanted to speak up.

"I dunno." She mumbled, thoughtlessly twirling a spring of hair around her finger. _I wonder if it's soft._ I think my thoughts should go to hell. She knew exactly why she pulled her hair back, the liar, the pretty little liar. Wow self, wow, I just said that. I have serious mental issues.

"You should stop that." I told her, not thinking before I spoke as per usual. She didn't look at me, I would think she hated me, but she went out of her way to warn me yesterday, and she helped with my bloody nose, so I think she at least tolerates me. She just didn't want to look at me. I was freezing in the ACDC shirt. It was thin after 30 years of being worn, it was my dad's, and my mom always loved when I wore it. It's cool anyways. Literally, _cool_, more like cold, but I saw a pun and I took it, sue me.

I'm horrible.

I think now is a good time to reflect on why I understand the clothes switching thing. It literally makes you feel _so good._ Like, I'm not even dating her, but I would give it to her forever, I don't even care if coach yells at me. The sweatshirt was beyond large on her, I mean, bigger than Charlie's on Silena (although she tucks and pins and clips it to make it look good on her).

ADHD, sorry.

Annabeth looked so natural in my sweatshirt, like it was made for her, not me. She had "I wanna cuddle and drink hot chocolate and watch dorky movies" written all over her. Sometimes when you see a girl in a guy's shirt she has "I slept with him" pouring from her, so I'm glad Annabeth looked innocent.

And as for the fact that the guys always gave their girlfriends their favorite clothes, not just a random old hoodie that you never wear. Because the second I saw her I thought "she'd look good in my jacket - and the football sweatshirt", my mind immediately went to my favorite clothes. Maybe _that _was a sign, like "I'll give up anything to make this person happy and comfortable, no matter if it leaves me freezing on Blackjack or totally out of it at football."

I don't know why it felt so good, it was almost the same feeling I got when I saw my mom after Gabe went to prison. She was safe and happy and that's all I wanted, but this time it was Annabeth looking like she was safe. I don't know how my sweatshirt can keep her safe, but I felt like it did.

Why did it feel like I had accomplished something?

_Because you liiiiikkkkkkeeee her!_ The annoying voice, sounding remarkably like Silena in my head, said, I told it to get out of my life.

The ladies were discussing how Annabeth would get home now. I was about to offer to give her a ride when I remembered I only had Blackjack and to get the Prius keys would involve waking Paul. I could take her on Blackjack, I mean I've taken other people on him too, but I had a feeling she was traumatized enough today.

"No." Annabeth said, referring to the length of her walk. I could tell she was lying horribly, but I couldn't call her out on it, especially since she kept staring at her feet. I wondered how gravity didn't pull her glasses off.

"Okay...If you want Paul can give you a ride, it's just...well, he gets only a little more sleep than Percy, and I was going to give him a chance to rest." My mom explained, biting her lip. I squeezed her hand, the doctors had told us she shouldn't do that, it messes something up with the blood flow or something, I don't know, all I know is that it's my job to stop her. She stopped biting it and glanced at me guiltily. It was true, Paul was almost as restless as me.

I work at the Garage, which is Charlie's dad's place, and Leo Valdez' mom works there too. I do menial labor, lifting parts, changing oil, some repair jobs, etc. from 7-12 every night. Charlie doesn't work there, but Leo stops by sometimes to help. I would work an earlier shift but I normally have some form of sports practice until 5, visit my mom until 6, pick up fast food (ew), and get there at 7.

Paul is normally still up when I get home, looking off into space all weird. I haven't seen him work in weeks, grading, lesson planning, anything, I wonder how he does it...or if he does. I was treading on thin ice with him right now though, even if he acted like usual, I knew something had happened the night before.

**FLASHBACK**

_I trudged into the apartment, jiggling the door knob to get the door to shut. _I'll have to take a look at that. _I thought, tossing my bag onto the couch. It was 2 AM. Since I was late to swim practice coach made me run 3 extra miles (they closed the pool), then I went to get dinner, I didn't even have time for visiting my mom. I tried to drive through somewhere because my stomach was about to implode. Of course trusty McDonald's computer system broke down so I had to skip, I was sweaty and disgusting and starving and once I got to work we had 3 cars, and one bike, due at 8 AM. Charlie's dad, Leo and his mom weren't there, leaving me and the manager, Jake Mason (Charlie's older half brother) to do it all. We got it done, but my stomach audibly moaned about 600 times and I almost passed out too._

_I just wanted to get home, eat the entirety of our refrigerator content, and crash on my bed, waking up to find it was still Saturday and sleeping till 3 PM. Of course that didn't happen. I basically crawled to the kitchen, pulled the door open and was greeted by a jar of spear pickles, some strawberry jelly and an empty gallon of milk._

_My stomach seemed to be eating itself now. I moaned, I hadn't eaten since lunch like 12 hours ago and then I could barely eat, worrying about my mom. My past self was stupid because I needed that food. I know it sounds whiny but after 10 hours of hard physical labor and worry I needed something. The pantry housed an empty bag of chips and a can of 7 year old beans. I considered eating the beans until I remembered the microwave didn't work and the can's lid was off a bit._

"_Paul?" I said, trying not to be mad. He said he'd go grocery shopping since mom couldn't weeks ago. I wondered if he'd gone to bed already but when I saw the light on in the other room I knew he was up._

"_Oh, hey Percy." He said, not looking my direction, staring at the TV which had a "NO SIGNAL, CHECK WITH YOUR CABLE PROVIDER" sign on it. He was supposed to pay the cable bill too._

"_Hey, um, do we have food? Anywhere? At all?" I asked, my stomach growling desperately._

"_Pickles in the fridge." He said, jabbing a button on the remote a bunch._

"_No, I mean something I'm not allergic too." I said. I'm not really allergic, I just get really sick and vomit all day if I eat them. I was considering it anyways._

"_Oh," he looked at me finally. I tried not to wince at his dark circles under his eyes. "Order something, I'll pay." He said. _

_It was odd, earlier, when we were at the hospital he was almost normal, and he was chatty at "lunch", but as soon as it was dark or he hadn't seen mom in a while he fell apart. _

_He was more fragile than either of us, I've been through Gabe and she lost my dad, but he's had a sheltered pretty life. He was born, has a younger sister, went to church every Sunday with both of his real parents. He went to an average college, had a few girlfriends along the way, never drank, then moved to Mystic for a teaching position that he's been on ever since. Never married before mom, no kids, all of his family alive and intact._

_He and my own mom, who was raised by her uncle after both of her parents died. Youngest among 6 other kids that were her cousins. Dating my dad, him dying, her teen pregnancy, not being able to afford college, alone raising an ADHD, dyslexic, problematic kid at 17, working 2 jobs, marrying an abusive alcoholic, going through that divorce, and then cancer, could not be more different from eachother. _

_I never understood their relationship, she wants to be a writer, and he's an English teacher, that's it. She liked him though, so I dealt with it. Lately I worried if she married him for me, trying to get me a stable dad while I was still fairly young and facing my Senior year. If that was so then I was crushed. Paul was holding his phone out to me, presumably to order something._

_"It's 2 AM Paul, no one delivers after 12 in Mystic." I explained, my voice steady-ish. I was hungry and tired and worried and the only person I had right now was Paul Blofis who was in no space to treat me like his step-son, nonetheless a human being. Did I mention I was hungry?_

_"Let's go somewhere then." He said drearily, hefting himself up off the couch. It was amazing how much he'd changed, sparse graying hairs, wrinkles, pale, tired, and he's a stress eater sometimes so he's gained about 30 pounds. It hurt to see him so torn up, but seriously, he needed to pull himself together._

_"No it's fine." I said, my stomach moaning again. I couldn't keep a sharp edge off of my voice. All of his...off-ness just makes it sting even more that my mom may leave us._

"_We'll go." He said begrudgingly, walking forward, accidentally bumping into the table, which was counter height and used to hold flowers my mom put there. It was just reflex, but I caught the glass that was about to fall off with my left hand. Football practice requires catching _everything _that falls. I examined the glass and my heart dropped._

"_This yours?" I asked him, knowing the answer. Whiskey lingered in the bottom of the glass. Paul doesn't drink, or didn't now I guess. I caught flashes of seeing these littering the floor and this smell lingering around the apartment when Gabe was here._

_I was mad. I would not, I could not deal with another alcoholic. I'm 17, that's too many drunkies as dads._

"_Yeah." He said, at least he had the humanity to be ashamed._

"_I thought you didn't drink." I said slowly._

"_Had a bad day." He said, basically meaning he's worried about mom. I assure you, I love my mom more than he ever could, but I'm not throwing my life away, neither is she._

"_Not an excuse. What would mom say?" I set the glass down, feeling suffocated by the old scent of Gabe._

"_You're talking like she's dead already!" He yelled, looking panicked. I'm assuming that one glass got him drunk as a skunk because he's not a drinker. Or that's the rationale that calmed me down the most._

"_And you're acting like it!" I argued, he stepped towards me, smelling of that dumb drink, looking furious and scared. This was different than Gabe, I _knew _Gabe would hurt me, I knew he'd tear me to shreds. Paul wasn't that horrible, and if he tried, I could take him easily, I was little when Gabe was here, I towered over Paul, who looked about ready to just pass out._

"_Oh yeah?" Paul yelled back, obviously not sure how to respond._

"_Yeah! I thought for once in my life I could be the kid when my life goes down the drain, but looks like you took that job!" I yelled, trying not to step closer to him, the second I did I would feel like a bully._

"_I'm not overreacting! Don't you dare act like you understand!" Paul yelled, tears brimming in his eyes. I was furious. _I didn't understand? _I understood more than anyone!_

"_BUT I DO UNDERSTAND! DAMMIT PAUL QUIT ACTING LIKE YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE SUFFERING FROM THIS! YOU HAVE A STEPSON, STUDENTS, FAMILY, AND A WIFE, AND YOU'RE LEAVING THEM OUT TO DRY THROUGH ALL THIS SO YOU CAN WHAT? GRIEVE? LIFE DOESN'T GIVE GRIEVING TIME FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T LOST ANYTHING YET!" I yelled back, breathing hard. I felt horrible as I said all of it. What was wrong with me? He stared at me with wide eyes, like a kid. By title he should have the title of "in charge" but I knew I was more mature in the way of catastrophes._

"_She's gonna die Percy..." He said quietly, tears brimming over. My dry throat choked again, like earlier that day. I knew she would _kill _him if she knew he said that to me, but I couldn't speak. I suddenly felt like the step-dad in the situation, but I wasn't gonna hug him._

"_She's not dead yet genius." I snarled. Earlier I told myself she wasn't going to die, and refused to believe anything other than that. I took a step back, I was still starving, but I needed to get away from this._

"_So food?" He choked out, grabbing his keys._

"_No it's good." I lied, backing towards my room, confused as to what just happened._

"_C'mon." He insisted, still looking like he might cry._

_I assure you I was as confused as you are._

"_Okay..." I agreed, my stomach aching miserably._

"_How was your day?" He asked rhetorically. _

"_Good." I lied. I decided I could start mending bridges now. "Hey do you know a pretty blonde girl named Annabeth?"_

**END OF FLASHBACK**

It felt awkward around Paul, but he was being fairly normal. I wondered if he had been too drunk to remember it. I hoped so.

"Oh no! It's um, it's okay." Annabeth said, snapping me back to reality "Thank you guys _so _much." She said honestly, like we had saved her life or something. "I'll bring this back tomorrow." She said, tugging on the hem of the sweatshirt. I was about to be stupid and say that she could keep it, given she looked so cute in it, so I'm glad mom intervened.

"Oh it's no problem sweetie! Bring it back whenever, no rush!" She said, waving her off. She almost hit me in the face while opening her arms so Annabeth could hug her. I couldn't help but smile at Annabeth's happy face as my mom gave her the world's best hug. Mom patted my arm, right beneath the tattoo (more on that later) "Take care sweetie. Percy, walk her down please." I internally gulped at the thought of walking her down, and _not _saying anything stupid. I nodded though because I did what mom wanted, then I looked at Annabeth's pink face and smirked.

"C'mon Blondie." I said, gesturing to leave, her face fell. She muttered something, then seeing us, explained.

"Uh, I have to go say bye to my grandma." She sounded a little ashamed. So that's why she was here, I wonder if that lady Michael had been pushing was her grandma, it made sense.

"Kay, you can on the way." I told her, smiling, hoping she'd not look so terrified to be near me. She sort of nodded and started to follow me.

"Bye Annabeth! It was nice finally meeting you!" Mom said, giving a little wave. That's when it hit me. I finally understood what she was doing, and I didn't like it. I narrowed my eyes at my mother.

"Bye Mrs. Jack-" Annabeth started.

"Call me Sally sweetie." She said. I tried to stay expressionless, but my mom was trying to set me up with Annabeth and I wasn't happy about it.

"Uh okay?" Annabeth said awkwardly. I bent down to give my mom a kiss on the forehead, knowing that if I walked away without doing so I'd get a "Percy? Forgetting something?" from her. I was still going to have a talk with her about this later.

I could already tell I was going to say something embarrassing before the 3rd floor, I just knew it. I opened the door for her, like my mom makes me _every time _we reach a door, "creating habits" she said. Doing it for Annabeth felt different though, maybe it's because she was blushing or something because I couldn't stop myself from saying "M'lady." jokingly, doing that thing gentlemen do on TV shows, offering her my arm. I saw her glance at the tattoo.

I have 3 tattoos, my mom was totally okay with it, my dad had them when she dated him, and she thought it's my skin, I get to choose what it says about me. Paul was traumatized when he saw it, but the guys think it's cool and Charlie got one too.

My first tattoo I was terrified, but I felt like I needed it. It was actually something my dad said once to my mom, so she was in love with it. "η αναζήτηση για απαντήσεις μπορεί να μην είναι εύκολο , αλλά θα αξίζει τον κόπο ." roughly meaning "the search for answers may not be easy, but it will be worth it." I don't know why it resonated so well, but I loved every word. I got that on the small of back, it just felt right.

Number two was just a trident (that's my symbol for sports) with "Sally" under it because I love my mom. That one was on my left rib cage.

Then by number three I felt like a pro, I really wanted a barbed wire one, but I didn't want it to mean nothing, so I got one that looked like barbed wire, but the wire was shaped in infinity symbols and there were words tied around it. "_Don't you cry for the lost, Smile for the living, Get what you need and give what you're given, Life's for the living so live it, Or you're better off dead" _which was one of my favorite song lyrics of all time. Most people didn't read it, they just thought that I had a barbed wire tattoo which is okay. I wear sleeves over it most of the time.

I still had my arm out for her to take it, acting like a dorky gentleman before she giggled at me. I smiled and put my arm down. Then _they _came, embarrassing words, before we were barely out the door. So much for third floor.

"You've got a cute laugh." I said. My heart quickened and I almost smacked myself. I couldn't look at her, until I heard her...laughing? I glanced at her. She had her hand over her mouth, giggling at me, not terrified or worried or embarrassed at all. I let out a nervous chuckle and we kept walking down the all-white hallway.

"What's so funny?" I said, a bit confused, but still laughing at how cute she sounded.

"You-Your face." She said between laughs.

"Oh c'mon don't laugh at ugly people." I pretended to scold her, winking.

"You looked more surprised than me!" She cracked up. I wasn't entirely sure why it was so hilarious but I think it was a lot of nervous laughter.

"I shock myself more often than I care to admit." I said smiling. How was I supposed to not do anything about thinking she's adorable? Why did I make that rule for myself? If I hadn't I'd probably poke her in the side to tickle her, making her laugh more, but I just shoved my hands into my pockets. We turned the corner and reached an open door, she immediately sobered up.

"I gotta say bye." She muttered, no sign that she'd been having a giggle fit 5 seconds ago.

"Okay." I said, trying not to look confused or disappointed. She ducked into the room and I heard a faint "Hey ma'am." Which sounds weird I assure you.

"Where's my water?" An old lady barked, I turned away from the door, staring awkwardly at the sterile hallway.

"Hey! Percy right?" I smiled as Michael walked up to me, wiping his hands on a rag.

"Hey Michael." I said politely. He smiled a shiny white smile.

"How's it going _Freddy_?" He asked mockingly, I nodded.

"Haha very funny." I let out a dry laugh.

"That's me." He said, punching my arm lightly. "Excuse me." He said, all business now, going into the room with Annabeth. I heard them talk a little too. So that lady yesterday _was _her grandma. Her dad must be Frederick. I waited for a little while longer, an older lady nurse flirted with me, I thankfully got rid of her, and Annabeth finally walked out, looking more tired than before.

"Sorry." She said quietly.

"Who're you talking to?" Her grandma yelled loudly. Annabeth winced and muttered something like "can't hear when I'm a foot from her but as soon as I'm 30 feet away and out of sight she's got sonar."

"Nobody ma'am." She answered. I glared playfully at her, mouthing "_Nobody? That's who I am now?"_ She ignored me but I saw a slight smile. **[A/N: oh how I love inserting story stuff in AUs...]**

"Nonsense. In here Annabelle." She ordered. Annabeth looked crestfallen at the name, I remembered what Michael had said about her grandma. She trudged into the room.

"Yes ma'am?" She said drearily.

"Who?" Grandma replied angrily.

"A..." She hesitated, glancing at me, not sure who I was to her I think. I decided to prompt her and mouth _friend._ Sadly I waited one second too long, because while still watching me she said "boy" then stammered a correction of "friend!" I'm sure I paled.

_Boyfriend._

Her face went red and her eyes got wide. She began to correct herself but Michael and her grandma cut her off.

"You're dating?!" Michael yelled, covered up by the older lady's snapping voice.

"Get out here boy!" I gave Annabeth a panicked look, but stepped forward into the room all the same.

"He's not my-" Annabeth started.

"Ooooh Annie he's handsome!" She said, looking at me with brown eyes. I felt my cheeks hot, thankful that my Greek tan hid the red that should be flooding my cheeks. Annabeth was not blessed with that and was the reddest I'd seen her. She looked about ready to puke.

"C'mon you couldn't have told me you guys are together? I thought we were friends!" Michael said, checking her heart-rate monitor.

"We're not!" Annabeth snapped, shaking. Michael looked up at me from his clipboard, raising an eyebrow as if to say "_You sure?"_ Part of me almost said "Not yet." but I couldn't do that to Annabeth, or myself for that matter.

"Nope, not dating." I assured them awkwardly, rocking on the balls of my feet and clenching my fists in my pockets.

"Why not Blondie?" Her grandma said, glaring at Annabeth's less-red face. I grimaced, whoops, maybe we should have lied and told her we were to make her happy. Annabeth looked like a fish out of water, gulping for air, looking worried, I decided to save her.

"We just met yesterday ma'am." I told her, deciding that it was an appropriate name. Both girls nodded.

"All in due time then." Her grandma said. I started coughing out of embarrassment, my hands on my knees. I wheezed out a "What?" at the same time as Annabeth. I turned to her in surprise, she looked terrified.

"It's start-Michael! Michael!" She smacked the nurse's arm and he looked up at her.

"Yes Mrs. Chase?" He asked, looking like he might laugh. She glared at him.

"Larson!" She corrected him. Annabeth smiled slightly, I don't know why.

"Sorry Ms. Larson." He said slowly.

"Better. Now, write this down -" She gave him a _what are you waiting for?_ look, as he looked around for a paper. I was officially concerned that it would be about Annabeth and I being a...couple... Because we're not, at all. _You're gonna beeeeeee! _Weird Silena voice squealed in my head. I shook my head furiously, earning a weird look from Michael.

"Okay." Michael said breathlessly, holding up the same pen and clipboard he had earlier, except there was no paper and the pen wasn't clicked.

"Good? Write the date and time." He gave her a weird look and I noticed Annabeth starting to inch towards the doorway. "For God's sake kid! It's January 7th, 1984!" Annabeth stopped inching, leaving her closer to me, I could smell her lemon shampoo. Michael looked horrified but "wrote" it down anyways. "9:78 PM." She finished. Annabeth bit her lip and that's when I did it.

I'm so stupid.

I had trained myself to squeeze my mom's hand when she bit her lip so well it was second nature. I grabbed Annabeth's smaller hand subconsciously. She jumped in surprise at the same time I did, but neither of us let go. Her hand was smooth and fit in mine oddly well, her hand was smaller and _freezing_, her fingers had to be numb, I think her fingers were small enough she didn't circulate them well.

"Write that it's started!" Her grandma said. Michael smirked at us and we dropped our hands. It took another 5 minutes of saying we weren't dating and a whole lot of blushing before Annabeth's Grandma, Ethel was her name, fell asleep.

"You two know she's right, right?" Michael said, walking out and eyeing us suspiciously.

"Shut up Mikey." Annabeth and I both snapped. I was beyond terrified, I just met Annabeth and her grandma and my mom were planning the wedding it seemed. I wanted to like a girl, not be forced to like her through awkward encounters. It was just me, her, and sleeping Ethel in the room now.

"Ready to go?" I managed to ask her, turning to look at her. She nodded but wasn't looking at me, her head was down, chin buried in my hoodie, her glasses off and in her right hand. It took me a second to realise that she was about to cry.

I hate crying, watching it, doing it, anything to do with it. Maybe because my mom and I used to cry daily with Gabe there. I don't know. But the second I heard her sniffle my heart clenched and I wanted to hug her.

"Beth? You-you okay?" I managed out, sounding fairly normal. She took a deep breath, and looked at me to nod.

I didn't notice the nod.

She didn't have her glasses on. Her real eyes were wide and pretty, even if tearing up. They were silver or grey or whatever you want to call it. They were surprising and beautiful - yep, I'm allowed to call her eyes beautiful. My eyes probably were wide as I stared at her like a weirdo. _Why would she ever hide that?_ My mind yelled. She was easily the prettiest girl I'd ever met, yes even prettier than Silena, Piper, and RED.

"What?" She said, her voice scratchy. I didn't think before I spoke.

"You should never ever wear those glasses ever again." I said, starting to feel sad that such pretty eyes looked ready to cry. She gasped and cursed, shoving her weird glasses on. (Sidenote: Her cursing is like a bunny throwing down a carrot in disgust.)

"I'm gonna go." She said quietly, trying to walk around me to get out of the doorway.

"I'm still gonna walk you down." I told her stubbornly. She swallowed, shoving her glasses up the bridge of her nose, but didn't say anything. I took that as the go ahead. I pulled the door open for her again. We began to head towards the elevator and stairs. "What's wrong?" I said thoughtlessly. I didn't expect her to answer so when she did I jumped slightly.

"Bad day." She said quietly. This time, unlike when Paul told me that, I felt pity for her. So far I had figured out she was really _really _shy, and I guess this had been a whole lot of stuff putting her in the spotlight for a day.

"Ah, why's that?" I said, feeling the awkward tension in the air.

"Lots...no it's nothing nevermind." She said, shaking her head.

"Yeah sure and I'm 4 foot tall." I said sarcastically, I started to walk towards the stairs along with her.

"Don't you want to use the elevator?" We both said, looking at each other in surprise. I chuckled a bit.

"Oh that's great." I said, referring to our same-time speaking for the 3rd time. She smiled a little bit. I opened the stairwell door for her. I heard some older lady nurse say something about young love and another call me a gentleman. Did we really look like a couple? She's younger than me!

I think. I really know nothing about her.

"Twenty questions?" I asked, not even knowing why. Her eyes got wide behind her glasses. I could tell she did not want to play.

Too bad.

"I can start." I said, starting to walk down the stairs.

"No! I will!" She said frantically. So she didn't want to answer questions. Interesting.

"Okay, have at it." I said, smirking at her. We walked down the stairs really slowly.

"Um...what's your tattoo?" She said. I smiled, an easy one, and she _did_ actually notice it.

"This one," I said, pulling the ACDC sleeve up so she could see it. I felt my heart quicken as she stepped closer to see it. "Is barbed wire -" She cut me off.

"What does it say around the infinities?" She asked, smacking her hand to her mouth in surprise. I grinned, she was one of the first to notice the words and the infinities.

"Uh lyrics." I said awkwardly, dropping my sleeve, it was getting to be a very serious 20 questions.

"What lyrics?" She pushed. I'm starting to think she may be really stubborn.

"You realize you've now used 2 questions on tattoos?" I shot back, trying to change the subject.

"Three and you didn't answer one." She corrected me smartly.

"You're too smart for your own good Beth." I told her. She smiled slightly. It felt so natural to talk to her, I never wanted to stop. We reached the third floor. "It's um...Don't you cry for the lost, Smile for the living, Get what you need and give what you're given, Life's for the living so live it, Or you're better off dead" from-"

"Passenger." She finished for me breathlessly. I nodded at her.

"You like him?" I asked, interested.

"Yeah, but I like Scare Away the Dark the best." She said.

"Good song." I said sighing. I could see a little sparkle in her eyes when she talked about it, making me smile. There was a silence, interrupted by me. "Speed round." I told her, she looked confused. "You have one minute for the rest of your questions so that we fit them all in." I explained, she nodded.

"Okay." She answered, stopping on the step she was on, I stopped a few steps down, looking confused. "If we're doing this I'm doing it right." She explained, looking determined, I gave her a curt nod as she started the questions.

"How old is that shirt?"

"30 years, next."

"Favorite song?" I sucked in a breath, no way I could pick. "Fine, um, favorite color."

"Blue."

"Favorite person?"

"My mom." She smiled at my answer slightly.

"Best friend?" I had to think on that one.

"Does my mom count?" I asked.

"No."

"Either Beck or-" I felt the need to say Grover, but he and I weren't even friends anymore. Annabeth seemed to know to move on.

"Birthday?"

"August 18."

"Dream job?"

"Don't know..." I said.

"Hobby?"

"Surfing." She giggled a little bit.

"Siblings?"

"None."

"You don't have to answer this next one."

"I will answer all that I can." I said, saluting her in a mocking way.

"Where's your real dad?" She said softly, nothing about it was pushy, but I always avoided that question.

"Um, I don't know, dead I think." I said, surprising myself. Grover was the only person I had told that to. What was wrong with me? I glanced at her reaction. She looked understanding, not pitiful, maybe sad.

"Do you like Paul?" The questions were slower now. She had gotten straight to the most difficult questions, usually people ran out of questions but she seemed to know what bothered me, was I that easy to read?

"My mom loves him." I answered.

"That's not what I asked." She said pointedly. I knew she was only playing so much and talking a lot because she didn't want to be asked the questions.

"It's all I can answer." I replied, she gave me a skeptical look but nodded.

"Favorite food?"

"Anything blue."

"What?"

"I love blue food, it's an inside joke my mom and I have." She smiled.

"Least favorite classmate?"

"Octavian, Matt Sloan, or if girls count, Drew and possibly RED." She tensed at Rachel.

"Where were you born?"

"This hospital I think."

"Any pets?"

"Nope."

"Job?"

"Beckendorf's garage."

"Favorite sport?"

"To do or watch?"

"Do."

"Swimming."

"There. Done." She said proudly. I had lost count forever ago but apparently we hit 20. I cast her a wary glance, she knew too much about me, and I knew too little about her.

"My turn." I said, as we started to walk down the stairs. Part of me thought I should just ask her surface questions so as not to make her hate me, but that wasn't going to happen.

"Okay." She squeaked. A minute ago she was spurring out words 100 miles per hour now she was silent again.

"Favorite color?"

"Green." She said, she looked really surprised at her own answer.

"Favorite song?"

"Do I have to pick?"

"Nah, okay, um any pets?"

"Two little half brothers, do they count?" I laughed, okay, so she was funny too.

"Totally. What are the members of your family?" She said step brothers, meaning stepparents, meaning she probably had a weak spot there. She tensed.

"Skip?" She asked quietly. Her pleading eyes almost got me to cave, almost.

"Nope. I won't judge." We had stopped on the second floor landing.

"Promise?" She squeaked, I nodded. How bad could it be?

"My real mom lives in NYC, my stepmom is Susan, my dad is Frederick, my half-brother, my mom's other kid I mean, is Malcom and lives in NYC too, my two little half brothers are Bobby and Matthew, they're twins-" She took a deep breath. "And my older step-sister is Rachel." I froze. Two thoughts went through my head.

1) That's a lot of family members.

2) Rachel? As in Rachel Dare?

"Rachel Dare?" I asked disbelievingly, she was Annabeth's opposite, no way they were sisters. She nodded, looking at her feet.

"So I was right," I said, trying to console her. "You are the prettiest girl in your family." I winked. She looked at me in shock. "Next question," I kept walking down the stairs. "How old are you?" She followed me slowly. I glanced at how cute the sweatshirt was on her.

"Uh 15?" She answered. So I was right.

"You sure?" I asked, noting on her unsure tone.

"Yes."

"Do you like sophomore lockers?" The sophomore lockers were notoriously terrible.

"I'm a senior." She said, the quietest yet, I whirled around, she was a couple steps behind me.

"What?"

"I skipped a few grades." She sighed. I gaped at her, I knew she was smart but, _that_ smart?

"Wow." I breathed out, she looked relieved. What did she think I would say? "Good for you smartie." She paused but smiled at me. "Um, best friend?" She thought on that for a while.

"Does Rachel count?" She asked.

"No." I answered. I wondered how terrible Rachel and amazing Annabeth could get along.

"Then I don't have one." She said it simply, but it made me feel sad.

"Oh now I don't count?" I joked. She laughed nervously.

"What?"

"I can be your BFF, I'm totally great at it!" I said, partially serious. I wasn't going to let myself _like _her, but she could be my friend right? She smiled.

"Fine, you." She said, hiding a smile. I felt myself flush.

"Dream job?"

"Architect."

"Is Rachel different at home?" I asked.

"You're not allowed to say anything." She demanded.

"I won't." I said, holding up my pinky for a pinky promise. She blushed but linked her little finger with mine.

"Rachel is a different person at home." Annabeth said, unlinking our pinkies.

"How so?"

"She's nice and cries about what she did, and tries to help me with stuff but fails, she's a painter, and she'll look like crap." Annabeth said in a rush, like she'd been waiting to say that forever. It was hard to imagine bully RED having a heart, but Annabeth seemed convinced.

"How many is that?" I asked, losing count of the questions.

"15, and including this one; 16." She said.

"That one counted?" I asked incredulously.

"Yep, and so did this one; 17." I smacked my forehead.

"Favorite food?"

"Spaghetti." We reached the 1st floor landing.

"Do you need your glasses?"

"Not really, I had a lazy eye in 2nd grade and it corrected it, now they're for looks." She said, sort of joking.

"Biggest fear?" She paused, we were standing by the door now, I was about to open it.

"Getting noticed." She whispered. I stopped reaching for the handle and looked at the terrified blonde.

"Why?" I asked, feeling horrified. How could that be a fear? She's obviously amazing, why is she scared of that? She shrugged.

"You used up all your questions." She said. I cursed, and pulled the door open, wishing she'd tell me more.

**There you go, Chapter 8!**

**Tell me what you thought of any of it!**

**-Lili**


	9. Getting Home

**Hi! OK I'm sorry for the wait, but seriously, I have written 114 pages of this story, and as a writer, it was **_**killing **_**me to not write something else, and that was affecting my work, so I took a short break. I hope nobody hates me for it...**

**I love you guys so much! Thank you for your support with this story!**

**Don't own PJO.**

**Happy Reading!**

**ANNABETH'S POV**

_Percy Jackson is walking me down._

_I'm wearing his very comfortable and good smelling sweatshirt._

_Percy Jackson is playing 20 questions with me._

_He has a really awesome tattoo._

_Percy Jackson asked me what my biggest fear is._

_I will tell him "spiders"._

I don't know about your brain, but mine likes to "lay out" all I know about the situation so I can understand it and come to a conclusion. I was still wrapping my mind around the most embarrassing day of my life, first with the vomit, then running into Percy, then wearing his sweatshirt, losing my ponytail, his mom and him thinking I looked good, my grandma and Michael thinking we were dating. I was about to vomit _myself_, not that the thought of dating Percy is vomit worthy, but it's embarrassing with him there. Now we were playing 20 questions, and I just wanted to hug him because he answered every question perfectly, and now I had let it slip that Rachel is my sister and how different she is, which I'm ashamed of.

But it felt like someone had taken 400 pounds off of my head to tell someone.

"Biggest fear?" His last words rang in my head. I was going to say spiders, that was true enough. We were on the ground floor landing, his hand almost on the door handle in front of me.

"Getting noticed." I was shocked even more than him at the words that tumbled out of my mouth, quietly, but still loud enough for it to feel like I had screamed.

"Why?" His voice cracked sort of, like he was scared or something, his hand stopped dead right in front of the handle. I was horrified, I had not just admitted that to _him_. I hadn't even admitted it to _myself_! Luckily, my mouth did all the work for me.

"You used up all your questions." I replied simply, keeping my voice steady. He cursed and grabbed the door handle, pulling it open for me. I walked through with caution. We walked through the sterile hallway in silence, dodging gurneys around the ER area.

"Bye Percy!" Some lady at a counter yelled at him. He smiled and waved at her. It continued like that, everyone, even some patients, seemed to know who he was. How often did he come here? Jeez.

"Jackson!" He stopped this time, instead of just waving, turning to the right. I was just going to keep going, and he seemed to guess that, because he grabbed my arm and pulled me along with him. I tried not to blush at his hand on my arm, wrapped around the sweatshirt sleeve.

"Hey Mr. Markus." I looked up in surprise, Mr. Markus had been the Senior Counselor until a car crash earlier this year. He was great, but he was in a coma for weeks. He was a short man, with a full beard, and apparently, now in a wheelchair.

"Hey Percy, how's schoo-oh who's this?" I winced, and smiled weakly. I thought he might recognize me easily before I realized my hair was down and I wasn't in an ugly sweater. Percy still hadn't let go of my arm, not that I was complaining.

"Hi Mr. Markus." I said quietly. His eyes widened.

"Annabeth Chase is that you? My God if you didn't have those glasses I wouldn't have recognized you. How's Goode's very own genius doing?" He had always loved how smart I was, and had pulled for me to skip those grades.

"Oh I'm not a genius." I answered softly. Percy looked at me too now, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh tell that to your IQ, because it needs to drop over 30 points for you to just be "highly intelligent" m'dear." He said with a light chuckle. That was true, if I dropped 30 points I'd be 124. Percy looked at me with surprise. My heart fell, there it was. I was an alien, weirdly smart.

"Woah what's your IQ?" Percy said breathlessly. I was ashamed, but Mr. Markus, was _not_.

"One hundred and fifty-four." He answered. I was all of the sudden _very _thankful for Percy holding my arm, because I was about to collapse.

"Holy crap Beth, that's amazing." Percy said, looking at me, I dared to glance up at him and found he didn't look like he was looking at a freak, which was what I was used to, but just the same way he had looked at me before. My heart fluttered pathetically. Maybe he didn't care how smart I was. I think that's when it fully hit me.

_I have a crush on Percy Jackson._

The thought had been plaguing me, but it hit me full force. I had never had a crush before, I had watched Rachel have many, and even talked Bobby through his first one, but not me, never me. And suddenly, I needed his hand on my arm because I fell back.

"Annabeth!" I heard him say in surprise as my knees gave out. The fluorescent lights did not help my headache. He had held me up for a second before adjusting to hold me up. I felt woozy and wanted to lay down. My head lolled against Percy's chest, and that's about when my vision went black.

This was most definitely not the first time I had passed out, I did it a lot. The psychiatrist Rachel made me go see a few years ago had explained it for us.

**FLASHBACK**

"_Annie, I'm worried about you, please just, hear him out." Rachel said, moving to the left lane._

"_I'm not crazy Rachel, I swear." I said, trying not to cry. My best friend in the entire world, my older sister thought I needed to see a shrink. She thought I was crazy. I am crazy aren't I?_

"_I know! I'm not saying you are, just, I don't think it's healthy that you randomly collapse!" She said, reaching her hand to turn the radio down. I had no response, she was right, it was worse lately too. I had collapsed at Rachel's school last, and THANK GOD I had been bailing Rachel out of detention because then it was just me and her in the hallway, it's actually a miracle. She had to carry me to the car, without being spotted. I woke up a few hours later sitting in the car, in park, with Rachel crying next to me._

_That was basically the only reason I agreed to go. _

"_You know I love you right?" Rachel said quietly, turning the car right. I nodded, knowing I might cry if I spoke. Rachel wasn't lovey dovey, and we didn't say that enough._

"_Love you too Rach." I said finally. She ruffled my hair. These were the times when I was glad to have her, when I felt like someone was taking care of me, instead of just myself._

"_We are here!" She said perkily, pulling up to a brick building and taking the keys out. We walked into the building and listened to the receptionist's directions to Dr. Apollo's office. I tried to explain to Rachel why it was funny that the name of the god of medicine was a doctor as we went there._

"_Ah you must be Rachel! And this must be Annabeth." A middle-aged blonde man said, adjusting his khaki suit._

"_I don't know about must be, but yes." Rachel said smartly with a dazzling smile. He laughed._

"_Ah a quick one!" He said._

"_Not as quick as Annabeth here." She said, rubbing my shoulder. He smiled at me and ushered us into his office. We went through a bunch of questions about me and my life, Apollo's eyes getting wider and wider with each statement. About an hour and a half later he came to a conclusion._

"_Well, I've never seen this in someone younger than 40, but you match every symptom." He said, Rachel straightened up, looking excited. I slunk down, of course I have to have a mental disease too. _

"_There's basically two ways to explain it," He started. "One, Ms. Chase, your brain is so - so," he struggled for the right word. "highly advanced, to the point Rachel and I can't even to begin to comprehend," Rachel sighed for some reason. "Well," He struggled for words again. "Okay, imagine our brains are internet browsers, people like Rachel and I, or most people, have maybe 5 tabs open at once, and we can switch between tabs and sometimes work on more than one at once." He paused to make sure we understood. "And Annabeth, you have about 200 tabs open at once, and work on _at least _30 at a time." Rachel gaped, looking at me in surprise. It sounded right though, my brain focuses on one thing all the time. "Then, to top it off, we are running Internet Explorer, meaning it's slower, and you're like Firefox or Chrome." He said._

"_What does that have to do with the passing out though?" Rachel said._

"_Well, imagine trying to make your computer do that, I promise you, it will crash a few times. More than a few." Rachel nodded slowly while I bit my lip. "We call that focus overload, when your amazingly brilliant mind just kind of implodes."_

"_What's the other way?" I said quickly, he laughed._

"_See what I mean? Rachel, a smart, but nearer average person, is still processing that, but you've gone through it thousands of times and are on to the next thing, it's rather astonishing."_

"_I don't think that's the right one." I said shortly. He raised an eyebrow._

"_Well, the other one is a little more troubling. You can handle so much, I mean, you're 13 and in school and online College, and have 3 jobs, that's extensive amounts of stress, even if you're used to it. Then when stress you're NOT used to, or accustomed to, piles on also, it'll freak your brain out. When all of your stress is internal, and then some joins on as external, once again, your brain sort of implodes, shutting down everything completely." There was a silence, yes, that was probably it, I only collapsed on bad days._

"_That one it?" Rachel said, looking at me, I nodded shortly._

"_Annabeth," I looked at Dr. Apollo. "I would be happy to help, if you want to talk to me you can set up a weekly appointment?" I shook my head. "Didn't think so. You know, I've only ever met one person like you, in college our professor brought him on so we could learn how to begin to understand the brilliant mind of some people. He didn't let us ask many questions either, he was a pretty guarded guy." He finished._

_We left soon after, and I haven't been back._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

I hadn't collapsed in over 4 months. Scratch that, 2 minutes.

"Beth, you okay?" I blinked my eyes open at Percy's voice. My vision focused on his face right above mine, his amazing eyes concerned, and his hair messier than before.

"I'm fine." I said, sitting up to find I was in a hospital bed. It took me a second to realize what was going on. Mr. Markus was sitting in his wheelchair at the foot of the bed.

"Oh good!" Percy breathed out, standing up straight.

"Gave us quite a scare there Annabeth." Mr. Markus said, rolling up next to me.

"Oh I'm fine." I said, waving them off, Percy raised an eyebrow. "Your mom is probably thinking you left her or something." I told him. His eyes widened and he facepalmed.

"Um, okay, I'm going to give you a ride home," I opened my mouth to argue but he silenced me with a glare. "No arguments, I'm not going to be responsible for you being found unconscious on the side of the road." I glared at him but he just smiled making me blush. "So I have to say bye to my mom, and I will be right back, Mr. Markus, keep her here?" Mr. Markus nodded studiously as Percy ran out of the room.

"My my that boy likes you." Mr. Markus said, I fell into a coughing fit.

"Say what?" I finally choked out.

"Well, I assume you're dating-"

"Why does everyone say that? We're not!" I exclaimed, getting tired of everyone thinking that.

"Oh, just, you're in his shirt...and he was holding your arm, and he caught you, and then he carried you in here bridal style, and he was worried..." My mind raced. _He carried me bridal style?_ I tried to picture him carrying me in here and setting me on the bed.

"Well, we're not, we just met." I told him simply.

"Sorry, my bad." Mr. Markus said, looking like he was trying not to smile. "But I stand by what I said, he likes you."

"Does not!" I argued.

"Uh huh." He said disbelievingly. I groaned, sliding out of the bed. "No leaving." He ordered.

"I wasn't leaving, just standing up." I said, which was true, I knew Percy was right, it wasn't safe for me to walk home, I could tell I was going to pass out again if given a lot of time to comprehend what had happened today.

"Good." Mr. Markus answered. There was an awkward few minutes of silence as I massaged my temples and Mr. Markus attempted to solve a Rubik's cube.

"Need help?" I finally offered. He looked up after making an incorrect turn.

"Let me guess, you know how to solve this?" He said, lifting the cube up. I nodded and he tossed it to me. "Want me to time you?"

"If you want, it's been a while." I said, looking the cube over.

"Go." He said, I quickly turned and twisted the block like it was second nature. I dropped it like the game hot potato the second I finished. "16 seconds." He said in shock, that is not a good time, for me anyways, the World Best times are like 7 seconds, and my best is probably 9 or so. "That's amazing." He said, picking up the cube in wonder. I laughed.

"Sure it is." I said sarcastically.

"Oh it is." I jumped at Percy's voice from the doorway, how was he back so fast?

"Never cease to amaze me, each time we meet." Mr. Markus said, shaking his head. I smiled weakly, feeling once again, like an alien.

"We better get going." I said, hoping we could leave. Percy nodded.

"Bye Mr. M!" He said, I waved. And then we left, just like that. "Oh, I grabbed your book." Percy said, holding up Gone With The Wind.

"Oh!" I said reaching to grab it, he lifted it above his head with a smirk. It put in perspective how tall he was. Basically a foot and an inch. There was no chance I could get it back.

"Jeez this book is heavier than you." He said, switching arms. I glared at him.

"How do you know how much I weigh?" I said stupidly, trying to decide how I can get the book.

"Hello, you think you floated to that bed?" He said. I blushed furiously, feeling stupid, remembering what Mr. Markus had said.

"Give me my book." I ordered, changing the subject.

"Please?" He said mockingly.

"Please." I said. He smiled and handed it to me. I tried not to blush as his hand brushed mine.

"So..." He said like he had bad news. "Paul left to go to the Grocery store." He said. What did that mean? Why did that matter- oh. Oh heck no. "That means, you, my dear, get a motorcycle ride." _Nonononononononononononononononononononononononononononono..._

"Uh, I seriously can walk." I said.

"Okay, then I'll walk you the short walk home." He said. He knew he had me trapped, either I spent an hour walking with him, knowing he'd have to walk back too, or suck it up and...ride...a...motorcycle. Gulp.

"Fine." I said before I thought.

"Woah look at lil' miss bravery!" He said. I gave him a half hearted glare. He opened the exit doors for me and suddenly we were outside and there was a motorcycle and it was hot and oh I'm going to get on a motorcycle with Percy Jackson. "Okay, so this is Blackjack." He said patting the black bike that seemed terrifying.

"Blackjack?" I managed to choke out.

"Yeah, I named him..." He said a little embarrassed.

"Will Blackjack kill me?" I asked, in terror. He turned serious.

"No way." He said.

"Okay." I breathed out. He grinned.

"Great!" He said, climbing on. I froze, forgetting where I would be sitting. I looked at the seat, right behind Percy. "C'mon." He said softly, grabbing my hand so my stomach felt sick and pulling me gently towards the bike. "Alright just swing your leg over." I did as he said. "Mmmkay sit." I rested my legs, sitting on the leather seat. "You do realize you will fall off if you sit back there?" He said.

"Huh?" I said. Okay so maybe I was sitting on the back edge of the seat and avoiding Percy.

"Scoot up." He said, and I obeyed, sliding down the seat and soon enough I was pressed against his muscular back. "Hold on." _What do I hold on to? _I thought, but my question was answered as he took his hand and grabbed mine, pulling my arm around his stomach. My heart echoed in my ears. Not only was his hand on mine, my whole arm was wrapped around his really really nice 8-pack. "Other arm too genius." He said, sounding nice but mocking. I wrapped that around his torso too, biting my lip.

You have no idea how embarrassed I was, it's like I went numb, and just decided to go with it.

"Lil' tighter, Blackjack is fast." I tightened my grip. "There you go. Ready?" I nodded. "Alright." I had numbly given him directions as we walked out of the hospital FYI.

And we were off. My hair flew back in tangles, and I held on even tighter, my eyes clenched shut. Percy's sweatshirt kept me warm in the whipping wind. I had no idea where we were. The motorcycle was loud and I hadn't opened my eyes once.

"Beth!" Percy said, it felt like we had stopped, but this wasn't nearly far enough, I opened one eye, we were at a stoplight and he had his head tilted back to talk to me. "You do realize you can open your eyes right?" He asked. I nodded against his back.

"How did you know?" I asked, referring to the closed eyes. He pointed to a little rearview mirror, I stared at it. Earlier he had made me take my glasses off so I didn't break them and I swear, the girl in the mirror wasn't me. The girl had wild golden hair like she frequently had fun, and was snuggling up close to a guy driving a motorcycle in an ACDC shirt and who has tattoos. This girl had exciting bright eyes and blotchy red skin from the wind. She had on a big sweatshirt. Most different though, was this girl had on the biggest smile in the world.

Was I smiling?

Oh I was.

The light turned green and I kept my eyes open this time. The world whipped by in a blur, I think that's what it feels like to fly. I didn't look at the girl in the mirror again, but I knew she had a huge smile and excited eyes. Percy turned a sharp corner and I let out a little scream, tightening my grip, but he just laughed happily.

The ride was one of the best-if not the best moment of my life, and it ended too soon, we pulled up to my street, and I pointed at my little house, noticing Susan's car there, meaning Rachel was home. I felt my heart drop. If she saw me with him she'd eat it up, not that me walking in with crazy hair and in his sweatshirt wasn't enough to do that anyways.

"Here we are." He said, slowing Blackjack to a stop. I didn't want to get off or let go, I wanted to just ride away, forget about life and go somewhere, anywhere, as long as it's not familiar.

"Thanks." I whispered finally, unwrapping my arms, which were sore from gripping his really nice abs so tight.

"No problem Beth, well done on the whole 'not dying' thing." He said, laughing a little bit. I had been dreading this, the part where I'd have to say what I was about to say.

_Maybe I don't need to say it._

_You do._

My mind played mental ping pong for a second as I swung my leg off of the bike, standing next to him. No, I had to do it.

"Percy?"I squeaked.

"Yeah?" He said, turning to look at me with those soul searching eyes.

"Can you do me a favor?"

"Depends on the favor."

"Don't like-um, acknowledge me at school?" I finally said. His mouth opened and closed as he furrowed his eyebrows. He sighed and there was a deafening silence as he cut Blackjack's engine. I looked down at my feet, trying to ignore the orange of the sweatshirt.

"Why not?" He asked finally.

"You know why." He groaned.

"I make no promises." He said. No, I thought he'd be glad that I wasn't expecting him to talk to me, a popular guy like him.

"Why not?" I said, sounding whiny. He shrugged his shoulders, then handed me my glasses that had been in the compartment.

"I'll make you a deal." He said, leaning on Blackjack's handlebars, looking really hot and stuff.

"Okay?" I squeaked.

"Don't wear your glasses, and I won't talk to you on Monday." I froze. That was a dangerous bet, but I knew that if I wore them he would go out of his way to talk to me, drawing more attention. I nodded mutely and he smiled. "Good. It's a deal." He stuck out his hand and I gingerly met it, noticing how warm and callused they were as we shook on it. We finally let go, leaving my heart to echo in my chest.

"Annie?" I whirled to find Rachel, still in her clothes from earlier standing in the doorway.

"Oh-um hi Rachel." I said, feeling my stomach tie in knots.

"Percy?" She said, leaning out of the door.

"Hey RED, what's up?" He said, like this was the most natural thing in the world. She stood in shock.

"Not much. What are you guys doing?" She asked, I watched as she flipped her hair, her previous concerned "_Annie?" _gone, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare was back. She stepped out of the door, walking down the stairs confidently on her heels. I knew what was coming, she was going to flirt with him, it was only natural.

"I'm just dropping Wise Girl off." Percy said, I glanced at him and mouthed "_Wise Girl?" _he smirked and shrugged. Rachel looked like she was trying to process that as she walked up beside me.

"I thought you went to visit your grandma." She said, looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"I-I did." I said, realizing I was talking to the closest things to royalty that Mystic has. Rachel gave me a "_yeah right" _look, luckily Percy came to the rescue.

"I was there with Pau-Mr. Blofis, we were visiting Mr. Markus, I offered her a ride, and that's it." He lied smoothly. Rachel nodded, believing it, I kept waiting for her to flirt with Percy, but it never came. She sighed.

"Alright, cool, how are you Percy? Your nose better?" She asked, grimacing.

"Yeah yeah it's fine." There was a whole awkward silence as we all just stood/sat there in the yard.

I jumped backwards in surprise at the loud sound of a car horn. Rachel cursed as an old car pulled up and a tall guy jumped out, slamming the door and jogging over to us, out of breath. He was sort of tan, with dull blue eyes and slick blonde hair. He was in a "Cool Story Babe, Now Go Make Me A Sandwich" t-shirt and basketball shorts.

"Luke!" She said, all previous annoyance gone, replaced by shock.

"Hey baby, I was just-" He said, but she cut him off with a sharp look and a head jut in our direction, Percy looked _so _confused the poor thing. Luke's smile faded slowly as he looked me over and then completely as he saw Percy. "Who's this?" He said, looking at Percy with rage.

"A friend, sweetie, a friend." Rachel said, I saw the terrified look in her eyes.

"Doesn't look like a friend, looks like a _guy_." Luke growled, Percy shot me a worried look.

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked dangerously.

"Is this what I get? I date you for 3 freakin weeks, drive down to this hell of a city to find you and _apologize _and find you with this guy!?" Luke said, looking furious, I sucked in a breath.

"Are you saying that I'm cheating on you?" Rachel screeched, tossing her red sheet of hair over her shoulder and I took a step back, knowing what might happen. Unluckily I stepped back towards Blackjack, and found myself stumbling off of the curb. Of course, Percy grabbed me, leaving me in the awkward position of leaning on him, with his hand on my waist, and stopping Rachel and Luke's fight. Rachel glanced at us and I saw her "_diabolical idea"_ look.

"Who's the klutz?" Luke snapped, looking at me with a seething look. Percy's warm hand tensed on my waist.

"She," Rachel snapped, ready to make a point. "is my sister! And that is her boyfriend!" She said, pointing at us. Percy immediately removed his hand. Rachel turned and gave us a painfully pleading look and he put his hand back, making me shudder.

"_She's _your sister?" He said in both surprise and disgust. "The one you never stop talking about?" I blushed, Rachel talks about me?

"Yes, Luke, she's my sister, Annabeth." Rachel snarled.

"You're dating _her_?" Luke asked in disbelief to Percy. I tried not to feel hurt by how it sounded like he thought Percy was out of my league, which he was, but it still hurt. Rachel looked panicked at what Percy might answer. He glanced at me.

"Yep." He said, popping the _p _and looking at me. Luke looked down awkwardly.

"They're so cute!" Rachel squealed, okay, that's overkill. I shot her a look, but Percy just smiled like any good fake boyfriend would do. "Lukey, why don't we head inside, and I can greet you properly." She said, causing me to wonder what she meant by _properly_. He followed her into the house like a dog.

"Well, okay then." Percy said awkwardly.

"I am _so _sorry." I said earnestly. He waved me off.

"Nah don't be, it was fun." He said.

"Really?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yeah! Maybe I could be an actor." He said thoughtfully. I couldn't help myself, I burst out laughing, he tried to look mad but cracked and laughed with me. "Hey! Meanie." He said finally, looking like a 2 year old, making me laugh again. "You still have a cute laugh." He said, causing me to freeze in silence. "Ha! Knew that would shut you up." He smirked as I glared at him.

"Not nice." I said, trying to battle the blush away.

"Oh it was very nice Wise Girl." He said, winking. I rolled my eyes.

"Oh! I can give you your sweatshirt back now." I said, tugging at it.

"But you need it to get to your house." He said pointedly. I glanced at my house that was 20 feet away, then at his hinting face.

"Yeah, I guess I do." I said slowly. He smiled.

"Good, so you'll bring it by tomorrow? Need a ride?" He said.

"Yes I will, and no I don't." I smiled. "Go back to the hospital Momma's boy." I told him. He mockingly saluted me.

"Yes ma'am." He said. I watched as he revved the engine and rode away, leaving me to contemplate my messy day.


	10. So Maybe I Get a Confidence Boost?

**Hello! I am here, and with an update *cheers*!**

**So yeah, I know I'm not a consistentupdater and probably never will be and I apologize for that. Your reviews **_**do **_**get me to work faster I swear.**

**A shoutout to Shinny Star, Catnip-wisegirl, Cthe, Doughnutswilderness, 18jclover, Jedi1, Book-shelfdivided, Sherlock-Jim-Stole-The-TARDIS, AwesomeTooAwesome, A the invisible, Percy Jackson FanGurl, and all you other sweetheart reviewers!**

**I want to respond to a few also (don't worry, there IS story down there!)**

**Genohardian: Hi! You're so professional in your review it's awesome :-)! I'm really glad you like this story! I loved your view on Annabeth, it's great, and I'm ecstatic about your appreciation for her actions! Thanks! **

**That One Guest: Thank ya! I'm trying, truly, but I've failed pretty epically lately I'm sorry for that! I'm glad you like it though.**

**Zora11: Hi! Thank you very much! You can just review instead of PMing next time though!**

**Guest: I'm glad you like it! Uh as for the schedule, I'm so so so sorry, but I can't, I'd be horrible and just disappoint you guys sorry. If you got an account then it would tell you when I update, but if not I'm sorry really.**

**ILIKETHICKBOOKS: Thank you! I hope it stays your favorite!**

**Um, I think that's it...without further ado, THE DRAMA!**

**Oh, almost forgot, I don't own the characters!**

**RACHEL'S POV**

My mind was racing with questions going round and round a NASCAR track, left turn after left turn after left turn after le-

"You look good babe." Luke's scratchy voice said, pulling me from my reverie. I didn't even look at him as I shut the front door, stealing one last glance at the driveway wondering if I felt like crying or smiling. Annabeth was doubled over, holding her stomach laughing. I hadn't seen her laugh that hard in...well, ever. Her eyes were tearing up and her hair was flipped on to one shoulder. My heart fluttered at Percy's affectionate gaze. He was trying to look offended but failing miserably with a grin tugging at his perfect lips - I mean his mouth. He finally gave in and laughed too, bent over that motorcycle's handlebars, hanging his head and chuckling. She was teetering on the curb as he finally sobered up enough to say something. It stopped her laughing immediately and she shot up in embarrassment. _What did he just say?_ I wondered.

"Dunno, why does it matter?" I jumped in surprise. _I just said that out loud. _Luckily I kept _that_ thought in my head. Luke was looking over the family pictures on the wall, scowling at the one of me and my cousin Lee. _Why is he always so jealous? _I mean sure, sometimes it's cute like when a guy hits on me at a club and he growls at them to back off, but it's like I can't be with the opposite gender.

"Uh - um, it doesn't I guess." I said, shutting the door with one last glance at Percy and my sister. He was saluting her in an ironic way and she was smiling affectionately. Since when did she not look at her feet all of the time? The door clicked shut and I turned to Luke. He was now kicking his shoes off like he was going to stay for a while. Great.

I don't know why I wasn't really excited to see him, I thought I would be, but honestly seeing him in Mystic was weird, like my two lives were colliding. But that's not true, my two lives are me out in public and me with Annabeth or alone, not me in NYC and me here. My mind ping-ponged that around before he grabbed my hand, snapping me to a very real, confusing reality.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay." He said gruffly. I always hated how his voice had this slurred yet scratchy quality. Like he was continuously hungover and ate sandpaper for lunch. Luckily we don't actually talk much.

"I'm fine, I had a fun day today!" I told him perkily, squeezing his hand and trying not to wince at the ring he was wearing that dug it's way into my palm.

"What, with your sister and her _boyfriend_?" He asked, saying the term "boyfriend" scathingly. I glanced at his eyes, making the mistake of comparing them to the god that was sitting in our driveway'. Luke's were blue, a good color, but they were flat and dull looking, constantly bored or disgusted. Percy's were bright and crazy, like he was constantly just happy to be here and be a human, but I noticed today and yesterday they looked more tired and worried than normal. I wondered why.

"No, I went out with my old high-school friends." I told him, tugging my hand away and realizing I was still in my stilettos. I love wearing heels, I feel powerful, but Luke didn't like them because they made me taller than him. He's pretty tall, like 6'1" but I like my heels _tall_. I quickly pulled them off and put them over by his. He moaned after I spoke. "What? I can't be with my friends?" I asked, confused.

"You're so stuck Dare it's not even funny." He said like he was bored.

"Stuck?" I asked, worried at what the answer would be.

"You're in college. You live in New York. Your friends are in college. They live in New York. Why are you acting like a poor little Mystic Girl in High School? You're not." He asked, he didn't sound angry, just like he was explaining something as simple as 2+2 to a child. I'm sure I looked wonderful too, my eyes losing focus and looking down at the pile of shoes, my lips parted emptily. Normally I could handle Luke's rude comments, but this one hit home. I immediately wanted to run to Annabeth, she would know what to tell him. I couldn't though. That was his point, high school Rachel would do that, what would grown up Rachel do? The problem was, I didn't know. I don't know grown up Rachel, I've never met her. But, I do know what I said back to him, with a disgusted face and hands on my hips.

"Oh yeah? Well maybe I'll try to be more like you! I'll get up at 9 PM every day, go to 'work' where I drink and drink and drink, ditch all of my classes, I'll call my girlfriend every night, even Mondays, at 4 AM to get a ride because my car has been towed and I'm sitting drunk off my bum in an alley in a bad part of town!" He tried to talk but I was on a roll and shoved my finger at his face to hush him. "And then of course she'll pick me up and drive me to her apartment, not yelling at me as I puke in her Mercedes, she'll basically carry my drunk self up those 8 flights of stairs. Then I'll try and sleep with her even though it's 5AM and she has to be up at 6! I'll sleep all day, take some advil when I wake up at 9 PM and start the cycle again!"\ Yeah Luke, I'll be more like you, you have life _all _figured out don't you?" I was screaming now, but I wasn't crying.

It was a bit exaggerated, that had only happened once or twice, normally I visited him at work and we went on a real date a couple of times, but some days it felt like that was my schedule. Luke's mouth opened and shut in surprise. I knew I had won, I always win.

"I drove for _four _hours to come down and see you Dare. _Four _freaking hours. Why can't I just get a thank you?" He asked sullenly. I sighed.

"I don't remember asking you to do that." I said sharply.

"I came to aplogi-" He was starting to yell but was interrupted as the front door opened to reveal Annabeth. She couldn't know we were fighting, I had sort of convinced her we were happy, and out there I had hinted at what we were going to do. I internally moaned but grabbed Luke's favorite "Cool Story Babe, now go make me a sandwich" shirt and tugged him down to kiss me. He tasted like whiskey and toothpaste not surprisingly. One consistent thing about Luke - he'll never turn down a make-out session.

"Oh!" Annabeth squeaked and shut the door, locking herself out. I hadn't been hoping for that much, just her scampering by and running off into our room or something. I shoved Luke away the second the door was shut.

"What was that?" He said through heavy breaths. I rolled my eyes.

"What'd you come to apologize for?" I asked quietly, walking to the living room, wondering if Annabeth was listening at the door, probably not.

"Um," His eyes were a little wild from that impromptu make-out as he struggled for words. "All of it?" He said finally. I was hoping to hear the words "_I'm sorry." _but they didn't come. Oh well, that's as close as I'll ever get to that with Luke Castellan. I pushed Percabeth and all of the drama with the girls out of my mind and focused on him.

_I don't forgive you until you say why you apologize._

"Okay, apology accepted." I said, contradicting my mind. He smiled his winningest smile, the one that made me recognize him in that coffee shop. The one with the pearly teeth and the dimples.

"Good. Shall we...continue?" He gestured to the hall. I bit my lip.

"Sure, why not?" I responded.

_5 lovely minutes later..._

"Rachel!" I pulled away from Luke, we were on the couch now, I was on top of him. Annabeth came in urgently, trying not to look at us in disgust. _If only she'd had her first kiss, then she'd get it. _I thought looking at her little virgin self.

"Yeah?" I asked, my voice husky.

"Susan and Frederi-" She started but didn't need to continue. I launched off of Luke and grabbed his arm, attempting to drag him off the couch.

"Wha?" He said dumbly, his lips puffy and his skin blotchy.

"Get up you potato!" Annabeth snapped, glancing at the door in fear. I mentally stored that insult to laugh at it later.

"Hey Rach, we're home!" I winced, not only at how Luke was still on the cough, but at how they didn't say Annabeth's name. Why did they have to do that?

"Hey Mom!" I said perkily, jogging to the door after growling a "Get him to our room _now." _at Annabeth who nodded.

"How was your day _at home_?" Susan said pointedly. Oh yeah, I was "grounded" because I had been arrested. I wasn't supposed to leave the house. Or have boys over. Oh well.

"Greaattt." I lied, rolling my eyes. I had to keep them in the foyer so Anna could get my potato of a boyfriend downstairs.

"Uh huh sure." Matthew said sarcastically through blue lips.

"Nice mouth." I told him sarcastically.

"What?" He asked looking at Bobby for an explanation, but his twin only doubled over in laughter at his brother.

"Oh Frederick it's that blue cotton candy." Susan said, bending down to look at her son's mouth.

"Mmhmm." Frederick said, nodding but not listening given he was on the phone. Mom scoffed and glared at him which surprised me, she was never rude to him, what had changed?

"Check it out!" Bobby said excitedly, rummaging through Mom's big purse and finally pulling out what looked like a 5 cent water gun.

"Oh, awesome." I said dully, trying to be excited.

"I'm gonna try it out!" He said happily starting to run off. I shot a look behind me where Annabeth was tugging Luke down the stairs looking furious. That idiot.

"Woah hold up buddy." I said, stopping Bobby with my hand by grabbing his polo shirt.

"What?" He whined.

"Outside." I improvised. He groaned but Susan shot me a thankful look.

"You heard your sister, no water guns in the house." She said. They walked back out the door, slamming it as well as they could. There was an awkward silence.

"Oh uh yessir, uh huh yes-" Frederick said into the phone, looking surprised as he shoved his way past us. I glanced at the stairway, Annabeth thankfully must've gotten Luke down because they weren't in sight. Phew. "Y-you too sir, yessir, bye." Frederick stammered, ending the call.

"Who was that sweetie?" Mom asked squeakily with a fake smile.

"Boss, I gotta go in." He said gruffly, jogging up the stairs.

"It's Saturday!" She snapped after him.

**ANNABETH'S POV**

"What are you doing?" Luke snarled at me as I tugged him downstairs. I wasn't allowing myself to feel embarrassed, I had enough of that today, so I tugged furiously on his arm, noticing how flabby it seemed compared to Percy's. _No, stop thinking about him. _

"Just c'mon." I moaned yanking again as I heard Bobby saying something. He finally succumbed, following me past the beads down into our room.

"This your room?" He asked with distaste, looking around. _Yep, and your girlfriend's too so show some respect._

"Yeah." I answered.

"Why'm I down here?" He asked boredly, I was liking him less and less.

"Our parents are home." I told him with a silent "_duh" _at the end. His dull eyes widened.

"What?" He snapped, looking up the stairs in fear.

"Why're you so scared?" I asked.

"I am so not ready to meet the parents. Nor will I ever be." He said fearfully, looking around with panic.

"Chill Castellan, they're used to it." I said, rolling my eyes.

"You don't understand." He snapped, glaring at me hatefully. I bit my lip and looked at the floor, what was I doing? Why was I talking and glaring and saying my opinion? I never did that stuff. I contemplated what was wrong with me, hoping it wasn't the reason I thought it might be. I didn't want to think that being around Percy made me more confident, that would really put a damper on talking to him.

"Hello? Earth to nerd?" He asked pointedly. I looked up slightly. "What's your name?" He asked, not politely, just like he had to. He knew my name, Rachel told him.

"Annabeth." I muttered.

"Well Annabelle," He said, I couldn't tell if he did that on purpose or just misheard me. "How am I supposed to get out of here?" He asked, looking at our pretty room like it was a prison cell. I shrugged. I knew they were going to find him, I only hid him because Rachel told me to. _His car's in the driveway for gods' sakes! _"You don't look like Rach." He said astutely. _No duh, we're not blood related and she's pretty. _I thought, but really I just walked over to my desk. "So you're dating that jerk from the driveway?" He asked suspiciously. I nodded mutely. "And he doesn't like Rach?" He asked, more persistent now.

"Don't think so." I sighed, wondering what Rachel saw in him. He groaned.

"Hey." Rachel whispered, walking in in all of her hot-girl glory.

"Hey babe." I internally gagged, babe? Rachel just giggled.

"Shh, you gotta go." She whispered, poking him. _Ew._ I ignored them for the next 5 minutes and was glad when she attempted to sneak him out.

_At dinner, an hour or so later_

"That was so fun!" I heard Matthew say dramatically, talking about the carnival they'd gone to this morning.

"Yes it was." Susan said, setting the table.

5 seats.

5 plates.

5 family members.

I turned away from my position of getting a glass of water.

"What's for dinner?" Dad said, sitting at his seat.

"Spaghetti." Susan answered. My stomach moaned. My favorite. But I would be happy with an apple. I convinced myself, grabbing a red fruit and slipping downstairs to find Rachel sitting on her bed doing something.

She was drawing again.

My heart lifted as I snuck in, hoping she was into her drawing enough that she wouldn't notice me.

"You know you can't avoid me forever." She said, not looking at me. I groaned, she would want an explanation as to why I was wearing the sweatshirt earlier (I took it off about the time Luke left, one of the worst things I'd ever done, but wearing it a lot seemed weird, it's not like we were dating or anything).

"Why not? I do that with everyone." I answered, coming around to look at what she was drawing but she shoved the sketchbook to her chest.

"True true but I know better, spill." She ordered, smirking at me. I bit my tongue, I didn't really want to tell her anything, I wanted to keep Percy to myself, but she was going to pry foreve-_no she can't, she has to go back to NYC. _I thought evilly.

"About what?" I said innocently. She moaned.

"Don't you play that game with me Annie." She said, glaring.

"What game?" I said, infuriating even myself. She growled but couldn't respond because Susan cut her off.

"Rachel! Dinner's ready!" Rachel made a disgusted face but stood up, still clutching her notebook tightly. She gave me a sad look, and I knew what she was going to say.

"Come eat with us." She said, nodding towards the stairs. I shook my head, holding up the apple.

"I'm good." I told her, keeping my voice remarkably steady.

"Oh c'mon no, that's not your dinner is it?" She asked, looking mortified.

"Well I have water too..." I answered, looking at the half empty glass. She shook her head.

"C'mon Annie, let me go yell at them, please?" She asked. I shook my head furiously, remembering how that went last time.

**FLASHBACK**

"_RACHEL, BOBBY, MATTHEW COME ON LET'S GO, WE'RE GONNA BE LATE FOR THE MOVIE!" Susan yelled at the top of her lungs from upstairs. My little 12 year old heart fell as I shrugged my jacket on. Had I been wanting to go see the movie? Sure. Did I need to? Of course not. we didn't have room in the 5 seat minivan anyways._

"_Put that jacket back on, you're going." Rachel demanded, applying another line of liquid eyeliner._

"_N-no it's fine RED, I've got homework anyways." I said, waving her off. She glared at me._

"_No you don't you finish everything in school." She snapped as she batted her eyes, checking the eyeliner._

"_College stuff." I mumbled. She was about to respond as Susan yelled again._

"_RACHEL COME ON! WE'LL BE LATE, AND 5 TICKETS DON'T COME CHEAP!" She hollered down the stairs. I bit my lip. _Don't you dare cry Annabeth, you do not cry, it's not even that big of a deal, dammit self, think, be mature, the movie is probably dumb anyways. _It was no use, my eyes teared up, which was rare, but I soon learned I was nearing my first "time of the month" (which Rachel helped me through, go sisters!) so I was unexplainably emotional. Rachel saw my teary eyes._

"_Oh Anna..." She said sadly, capping her lip stain. "One sec." She told me, holding up one finger. Then she jogged up the stairs. I didn't hear the beginning of the argument but I caught the end when their voices raised._

"_Don't you dare call me a horrible mother! I raised you and you need to show respect Rachel!" Susan snapped. I bit my lip, Rachel wouldn't like that._

"_Who raised Annabeth then? Huh?" She snapped back. I rolled my eyes, Rachel knew better than anyone that once I learned to read I raised myself, I don't _need _anyone to raise me._

"_Oh that's rich! You and I both know Annabeth isn't one for talking!" She said back, her voice reaching hysterical._

"_She is though! Hey, hey Frederick! What's Anna's favorite color? You're her dad, you should know!" No stop Rachel, stop. This was only going to confirm my worst fears. Nevertheless, I slowly walked up the staircase to watch, hidden by the banister. Dad looked like a deer in headlights. Rachel was fuming and Susan looked ready to run away._

"_Pink?" He answered, unsure. My heart hit my stomach as I clenched my eyes shut. Rachel gaped at him._

"_You - You two, you're pa-thet-ic." Rachel said thickly, spitting out the last word, and pointing at them. She quickly whirled around._

"_Rachel Elizabeth Dare get back here! You do not speak to us in that way." RED let out a harsh laugh._

"_What's her favorite food? Or how about you tell me ANYTHING about her besides her name! Here, you tell me what grade she's in and then we'll talk!" She snapped. I hung my head._

"_Rachel, you know we love Annabeth very very much -" Frederick started. I was surprised to hear it wasn't Rachel laughing this time, but the twins._

"_Surrrrre." Bobby said, still giggling. Frederick looked at them in shock, along with Susan who looked furious._

"_Yes I love my daughter!" Frederick said hysterically, I took a shaky breath, he hadn't said that to me since I was 2 years old. With my grand eidetic memory, I remember it._

"_Face it," Rachel said sadly, like she was teetering between crying and screaming. "The second Athena dumped her on you, you had no clue of what to do, and ever since she turned out to be a genius you let have no idea of who your daughter is." Frederick's nostrils flared._

"_So what? She didn't _like _being around me, even as a baby she'd cry when I came near her! She's always been better off on her own." He said, sounding less hurt than I would've wanted._

"_You two - you're NOT her parents, or mine for that matter." She snapped. Susan froze._

"_Thanks to your little outburst young lady, NO ONE is going to the movie, to your rooms!" Susan ordered finally. Bobby and Matthew started whining as Susan marched them up. I tried to slink downstairs when Frederick saw me._

"_Annabeth," He started. Rachel shot him a glare as I stared at my toes. "Annabeth, what's your favorite color?" He asked, Rachel rolled her eyes and marched past me, dragging me with her back to our room, leaving him standing at the top of the stairs, dazed and confused._

_Of course, that was probably the worst 13th birthday ever, but I didn't need to remind Rachel of that..._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

"Fine, I won't yell at them." She said, turning around and walking up the stairs, still holding her drawing, leaving me standing in the middle of the room with an apple.

Now, I don't know if you have a basement, but let me tell you, they get C-O-L-D. And that is the ONLY reason that I put his sweatshirt back on. That's it! I swear! Okay, yeah even I can't make that believable. I tugged it over my head, carefully avoiding my ponytail. I immediately felt better. I actually had a lot to do, Google (remember I'm a tech supervisor) wanted me to go through the complaint reports for the spreadsheets app, not like it would be anything more than "More font choices!" and "It's not as convenient as my computer!" but still, they were going to pay me good money...when I was a legal age to work for them...shhhh.

"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND MOM! I SWEAR!" I jumped at the sound of Rachel's yelling. Yep, they probably found Luke.

"Well, why then was a boy driving away on a motorcycle as we pulled up!?" Susan yelled back, I sucked in a breath. Oh no. They thought he was here to see RED.

"Because he was dropping Annabeth off!" Rachel snapped at Susan. There was a long long silence in which only my heartbeat could be heard. That was probably the first time in weeks that they'd even thought about me...nonetheless "motorcycle boy" with me. Finally the silence was broken by Bobby and Matthew's laughing. I bit my lip, wrapping my hands up in the waaaay too long sleeves.

"Boys!" Frederick snapped finally, silencing their giggles.

"Sorry pops." Matthew (I think it was Matthew) said.

"Eat." Susan ordered. There was another long silence before she spoke again. "Rachel, you and I both know that lying will get you nowhere, now why was that boy here?" She said. I stood up from my "desk" sliding the folding chair out with a loud screech. I had to save Rachel. She didn't answer Susan's question at first, allowing me to climb up the stairs slowly. I felt butterflies in my stomach. Well, sort of. As of 2 days ago I'd consider them butterflies, but after today, I couldn't. Butterflies happened when Percy smiled at me. Or when he held my hand (still not sure what that was about). This was more of a gut-wrenching sense of dread.

"He-he was-" Rachel started, but I steeled myself and spoke over her, talking to my dad for the first time in 2 months, and Susan in 3 and a half.

"Dropping me off." I said. They all jumped at the sound of my voice. Bobby and Matthew were looking at me if I were some alien, Dad had fear in his brown eyes, and Susan looked confused. Rachel gave me an apologetic look but I ignored her.

"Excuse me?" Susan said finally, not looking at me but at Rachel, used to her speaking for me. But I was the bravest I'd ever been in my life and I couldn't stop myself from answering.

"He gave me a ride home." I told her, feeling horrible and good at the same time. The two adults sat in shock for a while before I decided to head back downstairs, my knees were jelly anyways.

"Now just you wait young lady." I stopped at my dad's voice, even though he sounded unsure as to how to speak to me. I turned around.

"Why does it say Jack on your shirt?" Susan cut in. Oh well, we were already this far down the rabbit hole, might as well.

"It says Jackson and it's his sweatshirt." I told her, starting to understand why Rachel liked arguing.

"His? By his you mean tattoo?" Frederick choked, spitting out his spaghetti. Ah, so they saw the tattoo.

"Yes." I answered, my confidence beginning to waver. They stared at me dumbly. I decided to leave again. This time no one stopped me, but I did hear Rachel's final lie to them.

"Annabeth was only at his place for like 3 hours."

You can imagine the shock yourself.

**OKAY, UM YEAH I KNOW HOW HORRIBLE THIS IS, AND I WOULD NOT BE POSTING IT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES EXCEPT FOR THE FACT I WON'T BE ABLE TO UPDATE FOR A WEEK, AND YOU'VE WAITED LONG ENOUGH I THINK.**

**It was supposed to be 2 times this length and include the next day but honestly I have 6 minutes of computer time left and who knows when I can write again, so I decided to give you something. Please don't hate me!**

**Review! I'll try and get you some Percabeth ASAP.**

**Um, here, have a vote:**

**Who's POV do you want next?**

**-Sally**

**-Percy**

**-Annabeth**

**I love you all! I'm so sorry!**

**-Lili**


	11. You Drool In Your Sleep

**I'm back! Miss me? I hope so. Thanks for being the coolest readers ever! Well, most of you.**

**Guys, I apologize, but I have to rant.**

**I love reviews, I do so much. I get so excited to read every one (I check my email every 2 minutes it seems) and I'm totally fine with constructive criticism and all that (though I haven't gotten any as of yet). But I do hate one thing. Threats.**

**Never ever ever tell anyone, especially someone over the internet you don't know as an anonymous comment, to "update or I will slit your throat" or "PERCY'S POV OR ELSE B-". It's horrible! Getting those can terrify anyone. I get that saying update means you **_**like **_**my writing, but there are so many better ways to do it! For all I know you anonymous people **_**could **_**be serial killers or stalkers or something.**

**See what I mean?**

**I deleted both of your comments, and PLEASE NOBODY EVER DO THAT TO ANY WRITER EVER PLEASE IT'S A HORRIBLE FEELING TO READ THAT!**

**Also, thanks to those reviewers, **_**WE WILL NOT BE HAVING PERCY'S POV THIS CHAPTER, SORRY!**_

**But, the majority of my reviews are great and I love you for that! Thank you.**

**PLEASE READ THE AUTHORS NOTE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS CHAPTER, I BEG YOU!**

**Also, I DO NOT HAVE AN UPDATING SCHEDULE! Never have, probably never will. **

**Happy Reading!**

**Annabeth's POV**

I'd come to a conclusion by the next morning; _Yesterday was a mistake._ I was out of my right mind. Dumbest decision I ever made. Riding a motorcycle _with_ Percy? Wearing his sweatshirt? Talking to Susan and Frederick? What was I thinking?

I had to erase it. All of it. And the first step was getting the sweatshirt back. I knew I couldn't see Percy again, that was dangerous, I would go nuts again and probably flirt or something stupid. So, I got up at 5 AM to get to the hospital by 6, meaning I could drop the jacket off and leave before he'd even be up.

Brilliant, or so I thought.

"What're you doin'?" Rachel murmured as I got ready. Of course, when I'm trying to be quiet she wakes up.

"Nothing, go to bed." I whispered to her, she complied happily.

I bundled the sweatshirt up in my arms and snuck out of the house, no one was awake yet. A few times I considered putting the shirt on over my baggy (it used to be Frederick's) old t-shirt that I was wearing. It would be much more comfortable. But no, I was no longer going to like him. No more crushing. No rides on Blackjack, no meeting his mom, no people assuming we're dating. I was playing a dangerous game.

It was better for everyone if things went back to the way they were. The walk to the hospital was uneventful, allowing my mind to wander. I thought quietly about all sorts of stuff, lost in a reverie of thought, getting to the hospital quicker than it felt like. If I had been paying attention, I would've noticed Blackjack sitting in the parking lot. But I wasn't, so I slipped into the hospital, trying not to wince at the flourescent lighting at 6 AM.

There was no lady at the front desk, meaning I just snuck up to the 4th floor without any problems, except for accidentally running into the sign that said "VISITATION HOURS: 12 PM-6 PM" which was a bummer because I was breaking the rules for the first time in my life.

"I NEED A DOCTOR STAT!" I winced and wondered why they needed a doctor as I walked by a hospital room. I had gone up the stairs successfully, only thinking about our little game of 20 questions the entire time. What did this guy do to get in my head? _Get out! Get out of my head Percy Jackson! _I thought angrily. The room where Percy's mom was happened to be pretty close to the stairwell which was handy.

_Should I be here? _I was sneaking in to her private room in the early morning. _No, no chickening out._ I steeled myself and stepped in, hoping I could just leave the shirt on the table and sneak out.

Ha, that didn't work.

The first thing to go wrong was that Sally was awake. She was leaned up in her hospital bed typing on a laptop.

"Annabeth!" She whispered happily, looking up. _Why is she whisper-OH COME ON! _As soon as I thought that I saw him. Perseus Freaking Jackson had to be so flawless that he never left his mother's side. C'mon life, really? He was still in that ACDC t-shirt, so he hadn't even changed. Luckily, he was asleep, his head on the bed his mom was on, sitting in the chair beside her. It looked horribly uncomfortable. He was going to be sore when he woke up. He had clunky black headphones on, and I could hear a muffled tune even though I was 10 feet away, how loud did he play his music?

"Hi Sally." I whispered back. She smiled that amazing mom smile at me.

"You're up early." She said, closing her laptop, indicating that we would have a conversation. Grrreeeaaaaaatttt. I shrugged in response before setting the sweatshirt down on the table Paul had been sleeping on yesterday. "How are you?" She asked kindly. I could see where Percy got his nice demeanor.

"Good." I said, wishing she had been asleep and Percy wasn't here. His sleeping face was so cute, all squished up against his arm, a little drool coming from the corner of my mouth. He was making it difficult to not like him. "You?" I asked, not wanting to be rude.

"I feel better than I have in a long long while dear." She said and thoughtlessly ran her hand through Percy's messy hair. I smiled at her but I knew what that meant, normally when a patient has cancer, they either get gradually better, and live on, or they get better, feel good, then cancer takes them fast. _Please for the love of God be option 1. _I mentally prayed. What would it do to Percy if she died? He apparently never left her side besides for school, how would he be after that? _Don't let her die. _I internally begged.

"That's good." I managed, still quietly. She smiled and nodded, before gesturing for me to walk over. There were too many machines off to one side so I had to stand next to Percy. Normally when people are asleep they look innocent or younger - not Percy. He looked just like always, handsome, strong, and kind. Maybe that's how people who are who they really are around people look like as they sleep.

"Yeah," She said breathlessly, looking at Percy fondly. "He's so tired, I can't bring myself to wake him up." She said, running her hand through his hair again. A little piece flopped onto his face and he scrunched his nose.

Just let me preface what happened next with something: Even though I'm a classified "genius", that does not mean I'm smart or think some things through.

I thoughtlessly brushed the chunk of hair off of his face. His hair was soft, which wasn't surprising, but the ends were stiff, like he spent a lot of time in chlorine or salt water, which he probably did. Sally smiled at me before I'd realized what I'd done. _I did not just do that. _I thought angrily. How creepy was that? Us just around him messing with his hair while he slept.

I'm so dumb.

**SALLY'S POV**

I tried not to smile at the poor girl, but failed. It had been a long time since I could really smile, and I was taking advantage of it. She gently brushed the hair out of his face like I'd been planning to do. All I could do was think about the conversation I'd had with Percy last night after he came home.

**FLASHBACK**

"_I'm back." Percy said from the doorway, smiling wide like he always did when he saw me._

"_Hey sweetie." I said, fighting back the urge to pester him about Annabeth. All I had gotten so far was 'Gonna give her a ride, be right back, love you!' and he left. _

"_Hey, how're you feeling?" He asked, walking over and setting his motorcycle's keys on the table. At first I had hated the idea of him on one of those things, with them being unsafe and all. But I remembered how he and Poseidon were so alike, and it was better for him to like to ride that thing than be obsessed with looking for some wave._

"_Good, good, Paul just called, apparently Parent-Teacher conferences are tonight? He won't be back for a bit." I told him. Now, as much as I worried about my Percy, I was more worried for Paul. We'd just gotten married, and here I was, dying on him. We'd barely finished the honeymoon before I had to be rushed to the hospital._

"_Oh okay yeah." Percy said, dragging a chair over to sit next to my bed._

"_Uh uh, it is Saturday night, do not tell me you don't have a party or something. You are not spending your Senior year locked up in a hospital with me. I have my TV, that book you got me, and my laptop to write. I'll be fine. Go." As much as I wanted to pester him about Annabeth, it hurt to see him in there, folded into the tiny chair, full knowing that there were many people (including some pretty girls) that were wondering where he was._

"_Nah, I'm pretty tired, and those parties'll be a mess." _Parties? _Multiple parties. Sometimes I forgot that my baby boy was so likeable to other people. That was also part of the reason I authorized the motorcycle and the tattoos and all that - it wasn't like he was constantly drunk or anything, he was a good boy, I trust him._

"_If you're tired you should go home." He bit his cheek like he always did when he wasn't telling me something. I was about to order him to leave but he spoke first._

"_I want to hang out with my mom." He said nonchalantly, patting my hand. How long ago was it that his hands were skinny, bony, and small? Now they felt sort of like - no don't think it - Poseidon's. Percy's were rougher than Poseidon's had ever been, and warmer too I think, or maybe that's how cold I was._

"_Well, back in my day, we'd have called you 'lame' for liking your mom so much." I said, shooting him a wink._

"_That's because you were a bully." He said, sticking his tongue out at me. "Now, what's on for TV tonight?" He asked, looking at the small screen on the wall. I had 5 channels. Five. I hate to be whiny, but my entire life revolved around 5 channels it seemed. And two of them were spanish stations. I never even took spanish in high school. The other 3 consisted of; a shopping network, hospital news (a never ending slideshow about charity drives the hospital was doing), and something that played "Toddlers in Tiaras" all of the freaking time._

_Oh Percy must really love me._

"_Nothing." I told him honestly, handing over the clunky hospital remote. He flicked through a few stations before sighing and shutting it off._

"_Got any movies for the laptop?" He asked hopefully before making a fishy face like he always did when he wanted to watch "Finding Nemo". Sadly, I had caught my IV on the laptop the day before and dropped it on the tile floor, breaking the DVD spot. I told him that and he, without missing a beat, waved me off. "Then you can read me your story or something."_

"_Or we could just talk." I hinted. Maybe I would get to ask about Annabeth._

"_Uh, yeah sure." He seemed confused. "How was your day?" He asked._

"_Same as every other day in this place, highlighted shortly by my husband, favorite son -"_

"_Your only son." He corrected._

"_But still my favorite, and a little blonde girl." I told him. His shoulders tensed slightly at the last one. I mentally cheered. My baby liked a girl!_

"_Well, that's good." He said slowly._

"_So how do you know her?" I pestered, not even caring that he was blushing furiously._

"_I don't we just met yesterday." He told me. And he wasn't lying._

"_Really? How?" I was interested to say the least. He rolled his eyes._

"_Not important mom." He groaned, sounding like a normal teenager._

"_Oh c'mon! I know you think she's cute." I whispered. He blushed and tried to deny it._

"_She helped me out, that's all." He said, I wondered what that meant. _

"_With?" I pressured. He took a breath and looked at me. _

"_Mom, I love you," Oh no, here it was. "But really, you need to _not _be so determined to marry me off so young." I tried to interrupt to tell him I wasn't marrying him off, I just wanted him to be happy and have a teenage relationship. He put his hand up to hush me. "I know, I know, 'you're not marrying me off, you want me to be happy and experience a high-school relationship or whatever'" Oh, maybe I was a little predictable. "But I need you to focus less on a girl I met yesterday and more on getting better." He said earnestly. How was I supposed to argue that?_

"_Alright, alright." I said, patting his cheek. Since when did he have stubble? Did he shave? Who taught him to shave? Did he ask Paul to teach him? Ha, no he would never do that. For some reason the mental image of my baby just 'winging it' when figuring out how to shave pushed me over the edge. I started sobbing, and like a good boy he hugged me and calmed me down. All of these things they were pumping me up with for 'my health' really knocked my hormones off balance._

_It still didn't help that he didn't feel like a little boy when he hugged me. I was going to die and Percy would then never have a father and a mother. Oh, he needed _somebody.

**END OF FLASHBACK**

The surprise on her face as she brushed his hair away was adorable. So scared of herself. Oh yes, she liked him, she liked him very much so.

"I'm sorry." She said to no one in particular, stepping back. I smiled at her, trying to look nice, and not self conscious about my bald head.

"Don't be, I'm sure he appreciates it." I told her. And that was true, he would.

"Oh," She said quietly. I had considered taking off those too-loud headphones but they seemed to help him sleep so I just let the sound go on. We were in silence for a bit before I couldn't stand it.

"Annabeth dear, did you walk all this way?" I asked. She looked ready to lie but then nodded, a good girl. "Percy told me it had to be a long walk, you need a ride home?" She shook her head furiously.

"I'll be fine." She assured me. I wanted to argue, but it wasn't like I could drive her, or had a car, and waking Percy after knowing he never really slept was horrible.

"Oh, alright, be safe." I wondered if she had a mom who looked out for her. Based off of her shock I assumed no. That was sickening. Every teenaged girl needed someone to look out for them.

"Yeah, okay, I will, bye." She spluttered, backing out fast. And like that, she was gone. The silence didn't last long.

"Goooooood Morning!" I jumped at Dr. Fletcher's booming voice. And by booming, I mean booming. It bounced off of all of the walls and seemed to attack my skull. Sadly, in my jumpiness, I kind of hit my son in his sleeping face. **[A/N: One of my favorite lines I'd ever written.]**

"Gah!" Percy jumped up, knocking the chair over and his headphones off of his head. We all awkwardly stayed there as he caught his breath. "Did you hit me?" He asked in shock, looking at me and rubbing his forehead. He didn't look mad or scared, just surprised, but his wide eyes were enough to make me wonder if that's what he looked like after Gabe would hit him. I had to shake the thought away to keep from crying again. I'd cried too often lately.

"I'm sorry!" I panicked. "He surprised me and Annabeth just left and it was quiet and-" He cut me off.

"Wait, she already came?" He asked, all 'being hit in the face while sleeping' shock gone.

"Yeah, she just left, oh Percy I'm so sorry I didn't mean to hit -" He waved me off.

"It's fine. I'll be right back, morning Dr. Fletcher." And he ran out of the room.

**ANNABETH'S POV **

I seriously didn't even make it to the stairwell before I heard him.

"Beth!" I turned around, not thinking, to find Percy jogging up to me. He slowed down and grinned when I saw him. My heart sped up. _No, bad heart, you can't like him. _And the good butterflies came back. _Stop it stomach_ _! _He had a serious case of bedhead, and his shirt was wrinkled, his eyes looked like they were still adjusting to the light, and his headphones were sideways around his neck.

"Hi." I said quietly as he walked up.

"You're here bright and early." He said, wiping the sleep from his eyes. Now that he wasn't yelling my name he still had a bit of morning voice. And so help me God, it was one of the best sounds I'd ever heard. A bit raspy, deep (like always), and slower than normal, like a drawl. I wanted him to just talk forever.

"Yeah I guess." I said, trying not to drool at his voice and slowly inching towards the stairwell door.

"I almost missed you, you should've woke me up." He told me. All I could do was shrug without getting weak kneed at his still sleepy-voice. "Oh great, you saw me sleeping." He realized. _Now he's going to think you're some sort of creep. Nice going. _"Was I snoring? My mom says I snore sometimes. Sorry if I was snoring." He said, looking worried.

"You weren't snoring." I told him, not planning.

"Oh, good." He sighed.

"Just drooling a little." His face fell and I tried not to blush as I said it.

"I do not drool." He said self-consciously rubbing his face.

"You do." What was I doing? _STOP IT ANNABETH!_

"No way." He said, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Percy," He looked at me. "You drool in your sleep." I deadpanned. We both froze for a moment before he burst out laughing. It was definitely the best sound I'd ever heard. A deep chuckle that was slower than yesterday because of his sleepiness. It was contagious, I giggled too, forgetting about the whole '_avoiding him' _plan.

"Oh you're great." He said, smiling after we finished laughing. I knew I was blushing. He then cleared his throat. "And now I must walk you down because I like tradition." He said before opening the door to the stairwell. I didn't even object, mostly because I loved tradition too. He followed me onto the small landing.

I couldn't help myself, in the quiet place I heard it. The music coming from around his neck, blasting from the headphones.

"What song is that?" I blurted. He looked surprised but answered by taking them off of his neck, and next thing I knew my ears were warmer than usual and Percy was crouched down, fitting them around my smaller head. I couldn't focus on that because music was playing and my goodness I had to listen.

"_Hold, hold on, hold on to me, 'Cause I'm a little unsteady, a little unsteady..." _I didn't know the song but I loved it. So I closed my eyes (because that's how you must listen to music obviously) and listened. I almost forgot Percy was there. But when the song ended and all I wanted to do was hear it again I opened my eyes to realize he was right in front of me, trying not to be weird and stare at me. When he saw my open eyes he smirked.

"You like it?" He asked, grabbing the headphones off of my head. I realized his hands were very close to my face and one palm brushed my cheek and I'm 99.9% sure I'll be blushing for the rest of my life.

"Mmmhmm." I managed as he put the headphones around his neck again. We both started to walk down the stairs.

"Unsteady by the X Ambassadors." He told me, I assumed that was the song. "Need me to write it down so you don't forget?" He was being nice but I almost laughed. He saw my amused face. "What?" He asked defensively.

"Eidetic memory, I couldn't forget if I wanted to." I told him. He raised an eyebrow.

"Do you want to?"

"No way." I told him, grateful he didn't say the usual. '_Oh really? What happened on May 23 6 years ago in your life?' _Which of course I knew what happened, but I wasn't some robot.

"Good." He said, we stepped on to the next landing before he blurted something he'd been holding in. "I didn't like cause a problem yesterday right? At your house?" He seemed worried. Cause a problem? Well, Luke didn't like him and he led to me talking to my parents for the first time in forever. So yes, he caused problems.

"No, of course not." I told him. He sighed in relief.

"Good," He paused. "Pretending to be your boyfriend was fun."

**YEP, that's where I'm ending it folks. Sorry.**

**I'll update soon, I promise.**

**Okay, there's TWO things I want you to read PLEASE? Pretty please with a Percy on top?**

**One, I POSTED A ONESHOT! Yay! It's called "Sleepless" and it's Pecabeth of course. I would love it if you went and read it!**

**Two, there is a poll on my bio now for WHAT STORY I SHOULD WRITE AFTER HIDDEN IS DONE! It would mean the world to me if you went and voted, or if that's too much of a hassle, tell me in a review and I'll let you vote in the next chapter! PLEASE DO THIS FOR ME!**

**Votes and Reviews make me want to update *wink wink*.**

**Love you guys! Can we hit (oh goodness I cannot believe we might hit this) 200 reviews? That would be amazing.**

**Love you!**

**-Lili**


	12. I Seriously Have Zero Self Control

**Jeez, you people will NOT leave me alone will ya? **

***posts chap***

***5 minutes later***

"**ASDFGHJKL YOU HAVEN'T POSTED IN FOREVER YOU DON'T LOVE US YOU'RE DEAD GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH"**

**...**

**Okay not really, because you guys are super sweet and not THAT obsessive, I just like exaggerating things. **

**So I'm back, and with a chapter! Yaaaaay.**

**I had a very serious chat with my BFFEIHOHWHTU (that actually means something I swear) about where this story was going (she found my username) and I feel a lot better about it now! So that's good, you can all go PM NerdyBear with thank yous! (You're welcome NerdyBear). **

**Soooo, there's a few reviews I want to respond to.**

**Finding Adventures: Ha, yeah, but she's never known anything else really...she **_**might **_**at some point *hint hint spoiler spoiler* possibly.**

** 2: WAIT REALLY? AS MUCH AS BOO? GAAAAHHHHH GRACIAS**

**CAgirl: thank you that meant a lot**

**Cthe: It's ok :)**

**LilithLilyLuna: Thank you! I tried to make the characters my own - but still Rick's. Basically this story is shy, insecure, Annabeth turning into the one we know sometimes.**

**THESE THREE NEED TO BACK OFF WITH THE TEXTS (they're my real life friends jsyk)**

**NerdyBear: Yeah right like you get more previews.**

**Arabelle: Eminem, seriously? I will break your phone.**

**Pepehorse67: Why thankya my dear, I'm glad you found my account :)**

**Also, can we just take a moment to LOOK AT THAT NUMBER OF REVIEWS! LOOK AT IT! ALMOST 230! THAT'S A WHOLE LOT! ON MY FIRST FIC! (it gets me on page 45 in rankings of reviews on the PJO archives - which may not seem impressive but I may spontaneously combust.) THAT'S 45 OUT OF 2028! IN LESS THAN 3 MONTHS!**

**and that's thanks to you. I love you guys. Thank you so so much for reading and reviewing and being generally amazing.**

**So, I gave you more fluff than I probably should have just for that. Yaaaay.**

**Um, well, at the bottom I put the poll, so please vote on that!**

**Thank you!**

**I don't own PJO.**

**Happy reading!**

**PERCY'S POV [A/N: because you are all beggars ;-)]**

_"Good," Percy said. "Pretending to be your boyfriend was fun." _No. I did not just say that. C'mon Percy, way to freak 'Annabeth-I-Have-Social-Trauma' out. I glanced down at her. She'd frozen on the 3rd floor landing, and she looked adequately traumatized.

"Hmm?" Her voice was about 32 octaves higher than usual, and her face was burning up.

"Uh," What? I didn't even know if I did enjoy it. Apparently I did. Why though? I'm the worst human being on the planet. "It was just generally enjoyable to have a cute girlfriend for like 2 minutes." My mouth spoke for itself again. Was I flirting? I smiled at her and kept walking. I wasn't much of the flirting type but I'm pretty sure I was most definitely flirting.

"Well, Rachel appreciated it, so thanks." There it was again, _Rachel _appreciated it. Did Annabeth ever think about herself? I mean seriously, Rachel doesn't take up that much of the spotlight that Annabeth was all the way backstage did she? As much as I wanted to ask her about it I knew she was already stretched pretty thin.

"I think," I said, starting to walk down the stairs again. "That you and I should go to all of those 'couple's discount' places so we can get things cheap." I made sure she knew I was joking by smiling. Surprisingly she smiled back.

"Yes, so we can get free heart shaped cookies at Madame Penelope's." She giggled referring to the little shop downtown that looked like Valentine's Day threw up on it. I laughed, glad she wasn't really terrified that I said that.

"Because who wouldn't want that?" I said sarcastically.

"Exactly." We turned on the 2nd floor landing.

"Maybe we wear those _he/she is mine_ t-shirts to make it more believable." She joked, smiling. Woah, Beth is making jokes? About us pretending to be a couple?

"Most definitely. That is imperative to our 'scamming couple discounts' plan." I replied, smirking at her. She giggled her cute little laugh and tugged at her shirt that just happened to be 4 times the size she needed and looked like it belonged on a 50 year old man. It took _talent _to look cute in that, no arguments.

"We'd need pet names or something." She said as we stepped to the ground floor. I yanked the door open for her.

"Hmmm, what do you insist I call you?" I asked as she walked into the hall.

"Up to you, it's not my decision for what you call me." She shrugged, her scrawny shoulders jumping under the t-shirt.

"Well I already call you Beth," I said, closing the door behind us.

"Doesn't count, that could be my real name for all _Madame Penelope's _staff knows." She waved me off, turning right like we had yesterday.

"Fine, we'll go with a classic 'love' or some crap like that." I said, waving her off and scooting over so we could make way for a gurney.

"Yeah," She grimaced. "No way I can keep a straight face through that though."

"What's wrong with calling a girl love?" I asked defensively. She rolled her eyes.

"Nothing, it's just...weird." I shot her a skeptical look.

"Weird?"

"Like, imagining you saying it seriously is weird." She said, glancing at me.

"Why?" I asked even more defensively.

"I don't know, you don't seem like the type." She said, shrugging again.

"What is the type?" I asked, not sure why I was so offended.

"Oh I don't know, British guys who like frappuccinos and scarves?" She suggested. I couldn't help myself, I poked her side. She jumped out of her skin it seemed, but surprisingly enough, laughed.

"Ticklish are we _love_?" I asked, smirking at her red face. I couldn't believe I had done that. What was I thinking? _You weren't. _Doesn't matter - I acted natural.

"You jerk!" She squealed, covering her side where I'd poked her. Her mouth was smiling at the edges so I didn't think she was actually mad.

"Really Perce?" I turned to look at Michael, that nurse, behind us.

"Hi Michael." Annabeth said breathlessly, still protecting her side from another tickle attack.

"Annie," He nodded at her while setting some paper on Lois' desk (she has the best desk candy ever), then looked at me. "But really Percy, you need to stop with these 'hospital dates', they're lame as all get out." I once again mentally thanked my father for my Greek skin or I'd have been as red as...well, Annabeth. "And at 6:30 AM too? Really? You guys are such losers." I rolled my eyes.

"Not dating Michael." I told him again. He scoffed.

"Sure, keep telling yourself that."

"We aren't, I promise!" Annabeth said incredulously.

"Seems like it." He said skeptically before turning around and leaving. We stood quietly for a moment.

"Madame Penelope's wouldn't know what hit them, apparently we look like we're on a date in a _freaking hospital_." I muttered. She laughed.

"Can you imagine us in a couple's diner?" She joked back. There was a thin layer of awkwardness over the conversation, but I didn't mind.

"I'm starting to think we should find more couple's discount places." I said, starting to walk towards the exit doors again.

"Yes Percy, let's con loving people out of their money by faking a relationship. That's good morals." She said sarcastically. I snorted (an attractive sound I assure you).

"Jeez, when did you become the 'be-a-good-person' police?" She rolled her eyes.

"Am not." She argued, I raised an eyebrow. She huffed, "Visitation hours don't start for another 6 hours." She said proudly.

"Ooh rebel." I said sarcastically. "I've been here since I got back from dropping you off Beth, I win." She glared at me. I had a night off at Beck's garage so I stayed with my mom all night yesterday.

"Be nice, I rode a _motorcycle _yesterday. I've had enough rebelling to hold me off till I'm 30." She said, dodging a herd of bustling nurses.

"Speaking of that," I started slowly. "Need a ride home?" Her eyes widened. I had my keys in my back pocket. To be honest, I'd enjoyed giving her a ride...a lot. I'd driven my mom around, Jason, Paul (that was horrifying), Beck, Frank, Jason, Travis, and Connor on Blackjack already, but it was different with Annabeth. Yes, I realize all of those besides my mom were guys, but I don't know, I kind of wanted to take the long way to her house just so I could stay on longer.

First, I did not think it was possible for her skinny arms to squeeze that hard I mean goodness gracious she must've been terrified. Secondly, she was smiling so brightly I thought her face might hurt, all of the guys looked uncomfortable (not that I blame them) and my mom was horrified. Also, I am a teenage guy and she is a super pretty teenage girl so that's one very important reason - don't shun me.

"N-n-no." She stammered out.

"I'm not letting you walk a full hour alone." I told her stubbornly. She sighed.

"How do you think I got here?" She asked. I hadn't thought of that actually. She had to have left at 5 AM. Jeez, I would die.

"By pegasus I'm sure. Now let me either give you a ride or walk you home." I said adamantly. We reached the Exit doors and I opened one for her.

"No way, it's too early, Blackjack'll wake my whole neighborhood up and you'll have an hour walk back here." She explained. Ugh, I hate it when people have good arguments. Though it was nice she called him Blackjack, everyone else thinks that it's dumb to name your motorcycle (though no one else has one).

"Then I'll take you somewhere else." I told her, not even knowing what I was saying.

"What?" She squeaked.

"Yeah," My mind scrambled for an idea. "We can go get breakfast somewhere." She bit her lip.

"We're still on for yesterday's deal right?" She asked. I had to think back..._yesterday's deal...yesterday's oh_. I remembered the deal. The one where I don't talk to her at school if she doesn't wear the useless glasses that she was wearing now. I felt all tight in my chest. I couldn't go 30 minutes without thinking about her, how was I expected to ignore her _all day long_?

"Yeah," I managed before plucking the glasses off of her face. "But no glasses." I ruled. One step at a time. Baby steps. She bit her lip and looked at the glasses in my hand.

"Fine, breakfast." She succumbed.

.

.

.

.

Did I just ask her out?

Oh God.

No no no no no.

No I did not.

It's _friendly. _Nothing more.

_IDIOT._

"Okay, good." I said, acting like I wasn't screaming inside. "Let's go." We walked out into the parking lot, it was chillier than I expected. We'd be _cold _on Blackjack in our t-shirts. Oh this might be bad.

"Where is he?" She asked, looking around, I smirked.

"Glad you agree _he _is Blackjack. Not just 'the motorcycle'." I said, walking towards where I'd parked him last night.

"Well of course." She nodded, following me. I fished the keys out of my pocket to find my phone buzzing. Who wants to talk to me at this ungodly hour? I flicked the phone open seeing it was Travis.

"What do you want Stoll?" I answered, Annabeth raised her eyebrows.

"Ow oh God ow, who made the sun so bright?" He replied, obviously hungover.

"Travis why are you calling me?" I snapped, not too keen on the idea that I was going to have to go drive a ton of hungover teens home if he asked me too.

"Um - just so you know, don't go to school tomorrow." He slurred. I paused. We were now standing by Blackjack and Annabeth was trying not to look awkward.

"Why not?" I asked, setting the phone on speaker and crouching down to clean some grease off of Blackjack.

"Cause last night was a _mess._" He said, Annabeth, who was now listening, furrowed her eyebrows.

"Elaborate or I'm hanging up Trav." I told him.

"Uh well - SHUT UP CONNOR I'M TALKING TO HIM RIGHT NOW!" Annabeth flinched at the yelling. "Jay and Rey are no more, Cal is in forever shame, Frank got so hammered you don't even want to know, Pipes and Rey are both lacking chunks of hair, Silena dumped Charlie, and Will and oh God, Nico are secretly hooking up behind Zoë and Bianca's backs - yeah that's about it." Annabeth and I both gaped and looked at each other, Monday was going to be a mess. "So yeah, tomorrow will probably be a crapstorm of hellish behavior. Katie, Connor, Lacy, and I are ditching, you should come."

Okay, I dislike school, but I don't ditch (unless my mom's health is deteriorating) it, my grades are bad enough, I don't need absences too.

"Alright, thanks Travie. Talk to you later." I said, picking up my phone.

"WHY IS THE SUN SO BRIGHT MY GOD CONNOR TURN THE BRIGHTNESS LEVEL DOWN!" He screamed. I rolled my eyes.

"Hey Travis," I said mischievously. "What did I tell you about drunk/hungover calls?" There was silence. "Sorry man." I pressed about 32 numbers on the keypad, and each of them makes a small beeping sound, but once you hit a certain number it makes a long _beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep _sound in his ear. Basically hangover hell.

"I HATE YOU." And with that I hung up. Annabeth was trying not to laugh.

"That was mean." She managed. I shrugged.

"He deserved it, he was willing to wake me up at 6 AM on a Sunday morning for nothing." I said, stuffing my phone into my pocket.

"True." She said. "Though that was all interesting information you must admit." She said, walking to the other side of Blackjack.

"Oh yes, all of my friends' lives are falling apart." I said, rolling my eyes. "What's new?" Though truthfully, I was worried. Jason and Reyna? More importantly, BECK AND SILENA? What was happening to the world? But I could worry about that tomorrow, right now, I was taking Annabeth to breakfast.

"Wanna go to Pan's Cakes?" I asked her. That was the best breakfast place in town, Grover's Uncle owned it. She shrugged.

"Never been there." Did I really meet her 2 days ago? It felt like I'd known her since the beginning of time. I gaped at her.

"You've never been to Pan's Cakes? What even are you?" I asked, swinging my leg over the bike. Thank the good Lord it was cold enough out that I was fully awake, because normally I don't get up till 1 PM on Sundays.

"An alien. Do I get on now or...?" She hesitated, I smirked at her.

"Hop on." I said. She bit her lip and swung her leg over, or attempted to, her sweatpants (also super baggy) hindered her from getting her leg over. "Need help?" I asked. She glared at me and hopped on, yanking her pant leg up so it wouldn't get caught this time.

"I got it." She huffed, sitting down. I tensed, making sure I wouldn't jump when all of the sudden she was up against my back. I didn't. Now, staying normal and calm and all, that was difficult, but I achieved it so yay for me. I didn't have to help her figure out what to hold on to this time (not sure if I'm happy about that or not). Her arms are really skinny, and it was weird without the sweatshirt around them.

"Lil' tighter or you'll fall off there Beth." I told her, trying not to sound nervous. Her arms tightened and I could see her fists clench. "Ready?" I asked, looking at her in the rearview mirror. Her blonde hair was in a bun again (Blackjack would handle taking _that _out), and her eyes were actually open wide, showing off how grey and bright they were.

"Yep." She squeaked. She was braver than she seemed, motorcycles are notoriously terrifying to most people.

"Breakfast here we come!" I joked, hoping to lighten the mood. She smiled slightly then set her head on my back.

_What am I doing? _I thought, realizing I'd known her for 2 days and already I had basically conned her into hugging me by putting her on a motorcycle, terrified her without her glasses, pestered her about her family, given her my clothes, and other mean-guy moves.

I'm still against High School dating for the record. No matter if I noticed way too many times that her lips were really full and soft look-_NOPE! _I shook my head and revved Blackjack.

"Eyes open Beth!" I yelled at her, pulling out. I saw her open one in the rearview mirror.

The ride was cold mostly. This is why I wore jackets when I rode, but sadly my sweatshirt was up in my mom's room. I shook it off, hoping Annabeth wasn't as cold. Pan's Cakes was near the exit into town so we didn't go through many residential streets. It was weird to ride this early, no one was out but the sun was up. Was this what the world was like in the morning? Strange.

I was able to tune out the fact Annabeth was riding too thankfully, I just focused on driving. Could Annabeth even drive? If she was 15...I kept forgetting how young she was. Okay, only 2 years younger than me, but it felt really young when I said she was 15. When I was 15 my mom was OK and Paul was over a lot, flirting horribly with her. I was suffering a growth spurt of epic proportions meaning I needed all new clothes (until we realized my dad's stuff fit me, and to save money I started wearing it). When I was 15 I found Imagine Dragons for the first time, and Fall Out Boy...that was a good year.

"Green light." I jumped slightly, we'd been stopped at a light. Apparently I spaced out a bit. Annabeth was looking at the green light.

"Thanks." I muttered before accelerating (I looked both ways, my mommy taught me well.)

Pan's Cakes looked basically empty based off of the parking lot, but the '24 HOUR SERVICE' sign was on in the window.

"Ready for the best pancakes you've ever had?" I asked her. She smiled.

"Born ready."

_Ready to try and be as normal as I can be?_

_Yeah, ha, I'll fail at that._

**AND THAT'S ALL FOLKS!**

**Okay, 12 is my favorite number so go Chapter 12!**

**I know, the chapters are shorter, how about I break it down for you?**

**CHAPTER 1= 7 pages**

**CHAPTER 2= 6 pages**

**CHAPTER 3= 10 pages**

**CHAPTER 4= 10 pages**

**CHAPTER 5= 17 pages**

**CHAPTER 6= 22 pages**

**CHAPTER 7= 23 pages**

**CHAPTER 8= 19 pages**

**CHAPTER 9= 12 pages**

**CHAPTER 10= 13 pages**

**CHAPTER 11= 12 pages**

**CHAPTER 12= 15 pages but this authors note is RIDICULOUSLY LONG**

**So, they're A LOT shorter than 6-8 but I'm updating more often, so I think about 12 (fav number once again) pages is a good number for me. What do you think?**

**Anyways I gave you a ton of stuff (Percy's POV, more Blackjack, fluff, and a impending 'hang-out') so you can thank me now!**

**Also, since polls are ridiculous on this site I'm going to put mine here, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE VOTE (review or PM) FOR ONE OR TWO OR TELL ME WHY THEY'RE ALL HORRIBLE WHATEVER!**

**SLEEPLESS** **- (PERCY JACKSON) **Okay, this one is a one shot I've already posted (ACTUALLY I DELETED IT, IF YOU VOTE FOR IT I'LL REPOST IT), but if you think I should continue it, vote for it!

**QUOTE: **_"'You're what?' She snarled. He had realized too late that he shouldn't have said anything. 'Why would you say that? We should all have it!' Her voice raised slightly. 'How is it possible that you can remember it and I can't even conjure a fuzzy recollection of Tartarus?' He flinched at the name, causing her to calm down and look worried again. 'Sorry.' She whispered."_

**CLASH** **- (PERCY JACKSON) **An almost backwards "reading the books" type story in which the younger demigods (Lightning Thief) meet their after BoO selves at the future camp. Percabeth ALL over this one. Um, older demigods will be really hot and Camp will be super cool and way different than it was. There will be a whole lot of deep bonding and coming to terms with things.

**QUOTE: **_"A gorgeous blonde Aphrodite girl trotted up, wearing aviator sunglasses and a bright smile. 'What'd you need Mal-' Her voice trailed off as she looked at us, the past demigods. I'm sure her eyes were wide under those sunglasses. 'What is going on?' She said levelly, looking at Malcom expectantly. He whispered something in her ear and she sighed but nodded. What was an Aphrodite girl doing in charge? What had camp fallen to? 'Alright,' She said, turning towards us and clapping her hands together. 'Hey guys, I'm Annabeth Chase and we're going to figure out why you're here.' But the last part was barely heard over the uproar after her name. THAT WAS ME? No way. No way I'd go around looking like that, wearing a guys' shirt and short shorts. I was not that shallow. But she leaned down and looked me in the eyes, pulled her glasses up and there they were, my very own stormy eyes. 'Gods, was I always so mean looking?' She asked harshly before standing up to address everyone."_

**MOVIE SCREENS** **- (PERCY JACKSON AU) **Percy's a 19 year old agent for Olympus who's been trained since he was 2, Annabeth's a 15 year old genius hacker recruited to Olympus for an elite team. He's killed people, and it shows in his dark and brash attitude. How is it that the broken and naive teen can show the specialist that there's more to life than work and blood can be wiped off a ledger? Percabeth obviously, but all of the characters will have a really big part and Percabeth is only a side part.

**QUOTE: **_"She nodded, and in less than a second, her skinny little arms were wrapped around my torso, and her head was on my chest and oh jeez she's hugging me. Hug? When was the last time I hugged someone? Had I ever hugged someone? Oh woah, I'd never hugged anyone. Well, I still wasn't, my arms were at my sides. 'Be careful.' I heard her mutter into my chest. Being hugged felt good, really good, but I was terrified to hug her back. All I could feel was how I'd destroyed lives with my hands and arms, and killed a few people too, how could I hug with them too? But she was shaking like a leaf and before I knew it my hands were on her back and I'd ducked my head into her hair."_

**FOREVER AND EVER** **- (PERCY JACKSON AU) **They're inseparable, the two kids are. One can't say "Percy" without also saying "Annabeth", it's just the rules. Winnie-The-Pooh and Blue cookies, spelling tests and bullies, they're together forever. Annabeth basically lives in the Jackson apartment anymore, and even though they're so different, they can't help but know what the other is always thinking. That is, until Percy's estranged father decides to make an appearance in his life, and on his 10th birthday, after ugly court battles he's taken away to live on one of his dad's cruise ships until he's 16 and can decide where he wants to live for the last 2 years of being a minor. All communications are cut off for 6 full years, and nothing will ever be the same.

**QUOTE:** "_It was like her right arm had been severed from her, nothing felt the same, laughing, watching Winnie-The-Pooh, going to school, everything, it all felt lonely without him by her side."_

**RUNNING BACK TO YOU** **- (PERCY JACKSON AU) **Olympus, Texas is the home of the Heroes high school football team (AMERICAN FOOTBALL NOT SOCCER FOOTBALL), and don't you forget it. The State Champs for 12 years in a row who hadn't lost a game since 2001 (a 173 game winning streak). Football isn't just a sport here - it's nothing short of religion. While the town seems perfect, all surrounding this team in support, everyone has their secrets. The teens fall into alcohol, the parents are irresponsible, and the only way out for these kids seems to be college. Percy Jackson, star tailback, and by far the best player on the team, is fighting battles with his mom dead and his never-present dad. Annabeth Chase was adopted into the Jupiter family at a young age, and doubles as a football coach with her adoptive dad. Her dad, Zeus Jupiter, a great coach but horrible husband is facing his own battles as his wife becomes suspicious of his affairs. It's a small town, with some pretty big secrets, and they're about to come to light. This story features TONS of characters, with a whole lot of drama and all that. It came to me after watching "When The Game Stands Tall" and the TV series "Friday Night Lights" so there are some overlapping themes.

**QUOTE: **_"'Welcome to Olympus, Texas, home of nowhere to go, wasted youths, bitter adults, and the dumbest men you will ever meet!' Silena yelled drunkenly, holding her beer above her head. 'Amen!' The girls replied. 'Love football or die right?'"_

**SO VOTE PRETTY PLEASE WITH A PERCABETH AND LEO CANDLE ON TOP OF A BLUE CUPCAKE VOTE! **

**I won't start a new story until this one is finished, but I want to know your opinions really bad.**

**So...this is Lili, signing off! See ya next time my lovely readers!**

**-Lili**


	13. I Turn Into a Mime

**Some advice: If you're one of those readers who checks the story all of the time to read it, don't rush the chap! You can read the Authors' Note! I promise you will learn nothing and have no fun.**

**Hello! How've you lovelies been? I've been grand, I'm on a rollercoaster that only goes up my friends (Credit to Augustus for that one). Also Rollercoaster by the Bleachers is an amazing song. *insert me playing that song at top volume and dancing around my house for a little while*.**

**I feel like I've told you too much.**

**Ooops.**

**I'm so so so sorry for the wait, writer's block took me prisoner and whispered horrible story ideas in my ear...aka I stared at a sentence for 20 minutes and spent a few hours trying to come up with **_**something **_**to say that wasn't 'potato'.**

_**Anyways**_**, Percy and Annabeth are back! For a pancake date! *insert little pocket Percabeth screaming about it not being a date* Yeah yeah, we know you love each other. Someone mentioned that their relationship is going faster than expected.**

**I hear you.**

**Trust me, it'll be a while.**

**You'll actually hate me.**

**How is your October going? I feel like I should write a Halloween fic...nah maybe next year...or...nope, Halloween will happen in this story.**

**Isn't my decisiveness refreshing?**

**Hmmm, what else? Oh, I'll mention this in the **_**bottom Author's Note **_**too, but I can say it here because I like to chat. My next story poll is going great. You sure surprised me! Actually, your votes were the **_**exact opposite **_**of what I was planning on.**

**Thanks if you voted!**

**You still can vote if you haven't!**

**Oh, I have some responses:**

**imaginedragons4eva: LOVE YOUR USERNAME! Imagine Dragons is one of my faves! Music is always going to be a **_**huge **_**theme in all of my stories.**

**FailedGuardianofPandora'sBox: Oh, that just made my life. I'm glad :)**

**nameless: C'mon. Seriously? Was it really necessary to "annoy" me (which you succeeded by the way) to get an update? I look forward to each and every review and when it's one person literally trying to get under your skin and make you feel bad about not updating it's no fun! I'm really glad you like my story, I am, I'll never be mad at you for liking it, but there are better ways to get me to update than 10+ reviews that never **_**once **_**compliment me or my writing, just talk about how you want me to update and you'll be annoying if I don't. I actually updated slower (DON'T BE MAD GUYS I WROTE CLASH THAT DAY SO IT WORKS OUT IN THE LONG RUN) because of that. I'm spiteful. I'll keep being that way forever. Bye!**

**Okay, now that that's out of the way, I'll go through the usual: Thank you for all of the reviews, you're all sweeties! I don't own PJO. And, as always (I bet you know what I'm going to say here don't you?):**

**HAPPY READING!**

**ANNABETH'S POV**

I have come to a decision. This is my last Percy day. Monday will come, and I'm done. That's final. No arguments. So, I decided to live it up.

It was a little sad to know that it was the last time I would ride Blackjack, but it was only the second one too. This time it was colder though. I found myself missing Percy's sweatshirt, although, Percy himself was _very _warm. Seriously, what's his internal body temperature?

Is that where "hot" was derived from? Do physically attractive people have higher internal body heat? That would explain why he felt like a sauna.

And there you have it folks, reason one why I'm not allowed to be Percy's friend. I begin to sound like Rachel when she's in public.

Reason two is probably all of the things I'd said so far today.

"_Yes, so we can get free heart shaped cookies at Madame Penelope's."_

"_We'd need pet names or something." _

"_Maybe we wear those he/she is mine t-shirts to make it more believable."_

"_Yes Percy, let's con loving people out of their money by faking a relationship. That's good morals."_

I'm not a CAPS lock type person, but I think the situation calls for it. WHAT ON EARTH WAS I THINKING? I'M 92% SURE I AM FLIRTING WITH _THE _PERCY JACKSON.

Not like it was flirting if he's not, and obviously, Percy wouldn't flirt with me.

So, as out of character as I was today I thought "Why not?" when he offered breakfast. He agreed to ignore me tomorrow, I might as well have fun for the first time in years.

I know I know, my logic is flawed, but I had a feeling I _wasn't _being logical.

I'm always logical.

I feel horrible for being like that, stupid and rash, but also, I felt good. Maybe it was a mistake, but if it was a mistake, it was a very warm, muscled, sweet, funny, handsome mistake.

I hoped Pan's Cakes was warm inside, I was starting to feel like an ice cube. Percy didn't say anything for the rest of the ride, I had a feeling he was spacing out, I could relate to that.

"Green light." I said, surprising even myself. Maybe I'm a little impatient. I kind of sprent the rest of the ride enjoying it, knowing it may be my last (he might drive me home) time to ride it. We arrived at Pan's Cakes way too fast. Way. Too. Fast. I didn't have time to mentally prepare myself of the fact that in just a few moments I would be sitting across from Percy for at least a half hour, expected to hold up conversation. And eat breakfast.

I was _not _prepared. A whole mantra of '_oh my God I am so stupid and horrible what made me think this was a good idea can I run away I bet I can hotwire that car over there why is this place so far out of the way why am I so dumb what has gotten into me I swear my hormones shall get a stern talking to when I get out of this wait are we here already it looks like there's only one exit no no no no no nonononononononononono-" _started playing in my head.

If the lack of punctuation and capital letters didn't just give you a headache, kudos. Percy parked on the far side of the small parking lot. So let me get this straight, he takes the stairs and doesn't park in the nearest non-handicap spot?

_Are you even American_? I thought.

"Ready for the best pancakes you've ever had?" He asked, cutting the engine.

"Born ready." I answered, not even knowing my mouth was moving.

_Born ready to collapse into a small pile of Annabeth Antics on this cement._

"Good." He said nodding. I tried to ignore how tired he looked with those bags under his gorgeuo- I mean eyes, just eyes, no adjectives necessary. I swung my leg up, trying not to knock Percy and the bike over. I succeeded (5 points Annabeth!) in doing that, even if once I was standing I stumbled backwards. He hopped off like it was the most natural thing in the world...

That's what it was.

For years now I had been trying to figure out what _it _was about Percy that just made everyone act how they do around him, including me, and I think I just figured it out.

Everything he did, all of it, it was so _natural, _no matter what it was, it was genuine and natural and raw. He never tried to hold back laughter, he never even _considered_ not saying his opinion on anything. He couldn't care less what people thought of him.

Confession Time:

I'm totally jealous. My entire being is made of jealously at the moment. How can one person be that way? How can he _not care _about everything, yet also care more than anyone about anything?

I watched as he grabbed Blackjack's keys, deciding he was the most confusing person I'd ever met, including Rachel.

"Just a heads up," He started, gesturing for me to follow him across the empty parking lot. "Pan is a _total _nature freak. Don't be freaked out if he yells at you for using too many napkins or something." Oh of course. There had to be a crazy pancake shop owner in the mix.

"I'll be freaked out, but that's okay." I said, knowing the look he would giv- there it was. Furrowed eyebrows, almost pursed lips, and a bit of surprise in his eyes. I was getting used to it.

"Don't use too many napkins then." He said finally, opening the door with the "OPEN 24 HOURS" sign on it for me.

"Thanks." I muttered, ducking in. It was warm in there thank goodness. And empty. You'd think a breakfast place might have a few customers at 6:30 AM, but no, it was deserted.

"One moment and I'll be ri - Oh Percy!" A chubby woman came out of the swinging doors with porthole windows. She had tight, short, gray curls under a hair net and wide brown eyes.

"Hey Ma!" He said, smiling brightly as she bustled over (barely fitting through the half-wall swinging counter door) to us. Percy's tired eyes were more prominent in the fluorescent lighting, but that didn't stop him from giving "Ma" a big hug that lifted her small feet (they were disproportionate to her body) off of the tile floor. Jeez, how much could he lift? I'm not trying to be rude but she was a _big _woman, like maybe 3 or 4 times my size.

_He could lift me with one arm-_NOPE. So much nope. Stop it brain.

"Oh," She giggled and they let go. She looked about 50 years old, but her eyes made her seem 5. "Haven't seen your handsome face in forever Percy! What can we ge-Who's this?" She said, flattening her hair and noticing me. I opened my mouth but no sound came out.

No.

I tried again.

Nothing.

Oh come on brain not today.

No no no stop it, come on let me talk.

Percy told her my name, picking up my slack like it was nothing. He called me a friend and said we needed some pancakes.

"Blue?" She asked, turning around and squeezing through the counter opening again.

"Of course." He said, winking at her goofily. She laughed and went back through the doors, leaving us alone in the empty restaurant. I focused on trying to talk again.

Every once in a while (like the passing out except less weird) I just stopped talking. I don't know why. I think it's basically my brain saying that I would do something stupid if I kept talking, which was likely, but really annoying when I was expected to keep up conversation. My tongue felt like it was made of lead in my mouth and I wanted to run away.

The worst part was, I was doing this to myself. No one was physically keeping me from talking, I could talk whenever I wanted, but I just _couldn't_. It was like when you're laying in bed and you're just like _sleep! sleep self sleep! _and after a while you become worried you'll never sleep again because it's 3 AM and you can't even blink your eyes are so wide open and you regret that scary movie or whatever it is. That's when you crawl down from your top bunk and try not to wake Rachel up but she's awake too and neither of you sleep all night but instead gossip or watch a chick flick or she'll sketch you and you regret not sleeping in the morning.

Except I didn't have Rachel and I felt even more helpless.

"Where do you want to sit?" He asked. I shook myself back to reality (where I don't write in run on sentences, that paragraph up there is horrid) and where Percy was looking at me expectantly. I opened my mouth but no sound came out. His eyebrows furrowed. "Are you okay?" He asked. I felt like a fish, opening and closing my mouth so much. I bit my lip finally, shook my head, and ran into the bathroom (almost into the men's one, which would've been bad) at top speed. I heard him say something but I closed the wooden door too fast for his words to reach me.

The bathroom was a dingy little 10 by 8 room with one stall and a sink with no vanity so all of the rusty plumbing was exposed. The mirror was small and too high up with a long crack across the middle. I stood against the door (although if Percy or "Ma" wanted in there was no way I would be able to hold the door against either of them), trying to calm myself down.

10 whole ceiling tiles even though 4 ends were cut off.

132.33... subway tiles on the short wall (one was broken).

435 tiles on the long wall.

Meaning 1,134.33... in the entire room.

786 on the floor (62 of them are black, the rest are white hexagons).

The numbers chilled me out enough so I could breathe normally at least.

"Beth? Beth are you okay?" I could hear Percy now (I had been tuning him out). "Annabeth seriously are you alright?" I drew in a breath, drawing my necessary energy from being alone. I always felt better alone.

"I'm fine, I'll be out in a second." I grinned at the sound of my voice. That was the quickest I'd ever been able to speak again...ever. Once it lasted for 3 weeks. He sighed in relief. I stood on my tiptoes so I could see in the too-high, cracked mirror.

My face was paler than usual, though that may just be the lighting, and my eyes...what was different about them?

My glasses.

Percy still had my glasses.

That little sneak.

I fixed my bun that Blackjack had pulled out successfully, gave myself one last look in the mirror, and headed out, preparing to explain.

He'd chosen a booth by the window and was thanking "Ma" as she set down some plates. I walked up slowly, not wanting to interrupt.

"Well she's very cute-" She was saying.

"Beth!" He interrupted, spotting me. I blushed at the nickname but kept walking. He looked genuinely happy to see me.

"Sorry I-wait, are those pancakes _blue?"_

**OKAY, THAT'S ALL, A FEW ORDERS OF BUSINESS:**

**1. I am so sorry this is so short, I literally **_**forced **_**myself to type and my writers block was not having it. I'll try and make it up to you next chapter.**

**2. Happy Halloween! Boo!**

**3. Please don't be mad at me. I'm trying to update really often but I'm just not one of those writers who can bust out 5 billion words a day of one story. I wrote 5 or six chapters this week, just not of this story or not chapters I would post.**

**4. KEEP VOTING FOR THE POLL PLEASE (it's at the end of Chapter 12/on my bio)**

**5. Thank you so much for being so supportive and understanding, you're the best.**

**Love,**

**Lili**

**P.S. Am I the only one with a MASSIVE crush on this Percy?**

**Oh and P.S.S. tell me what you think of the characters, like how I interpret them. Mainly Percy, Annabeth (who's still massively OOC but I think I've made it obvious she has actual mental problems about social situations), and Rachel.**


	14. Blue Breakfast and Bro Bonding

**Hello readers! How was your Halloween and first week of November? Or whatever it is when I actually finish this chapter...**

**Sorry about the updating thing, but I never said I was consistent. Ever. I'm a horrible updater. Actually I'm doing a lot better than I ever thought I would be with this story.**

**I have had writer's block but I'm fighting through because you guys deserve a finished story for God's sake. Fanfiction lacks too many of those.**

**It felt weird last chapter, in Chapter 12 I got over 70 reviews but for the last one I got 30. I'm SO NOT COMPLAINING! I mean, that's amazing, but I really wonder why it dropped so much...**

**I want you all to know that even though I seem to take breaks (which I do) I am writing fanfiction. All the time. Someday if you're reading my future fanfictions you'll like it because they're updated a lot more often. Why? Because I write them now to give me a break from the constant Hidden writing.**

**I love Hidden, it's my baby, but sometimes I need to go write about a kick-butt Annabeth or a Demigod Percy, or something different.**

**I have been focusing on the stories that you vote for though! (More about that at the bottom of the page).**

**Some replies (some are from last chapter, I missed a few):**

**rr: The new ones? The one with the most votes will be started after Hidden is finished.**

**A the Invisible: I always LOVE new ideas! They always get me thinking (and writing)! **

**World3nding: Oh...okay wow...excuse me as I squeal into my pillow.**

**Jedi1: Oh there will be plenty of Percabeth moments, I'll lose interest too if there's not.**

**LookingForAPensword: And this is how I die of happiness. Are you serious?! You like how I write my Annabeth better than Rick? *fanning self and dancing to Happy by Pharrell* The heck, I don't even like this song... Whatever your review made my life.**

**Azuphere: Not gonna lie, I go and reread your review to get myself in the writing mood. It's so sweet and thoughtful and really reminds me why I am writing this story. As for your idea, I. Love. It. I'm going to try to get it in (next chapter possibly) although I might twist it around because plot and stuff. Thank you!**

**Pearlness4700: Yay! That's exactly what I'm going for with all of my fanfics. "If this was her situation, I could see her turning out like this." All I do is take a character, strip all of their traits that came from their past, and give them a new one. Some people don't realize that I attempt for them not to be OOC at the core. Thank you!**

**annabethlovegood08: THANKS! I actually wasn't planning on Flashbacks...or have ever written with them before, and I was not a fan either. But now they seem to help make the story what it is.**

**Guest: Um, not sure why you asked if I'm single... I'm just not going to answer unless you like review again with a reason or something...sorry**

**ACTUALLY KIND OF IMPORTANT TO READ: ****I hope that got people's attention. Okay, so I made a change to Chapter 9 (Getting Home). Annabeth's IQ is NOT 172. That's sort of crazy and I don't think it's that accurate, so I gave her **_**my**_ **IQ instead. It's 154, which just so everyone knows, we're still classified as 'genius'. At 172 I was writing her to be pretty normal (I know she's not really normal, but I know how that IQ thinks...since I have it.) So, nothing else changed, I just altered the number. Sorry for the inconvenience.**

**I was just realizing yesterday: I'M ONE OF THOSE AUTHORS WITH THE RIDICULOUSLY LENGTHED AUTHOR'S NOTES! And for that, I am sorry. I bet like 90% of you don't read them and that's okay, unless you're complaining about something I explained in the note, then you're just annoying.**

**So, I'll shut up now, take it away Percy!**

**Happy Reading!**

**I don't own PJO.**

**PERCY'S POV**

Let's just all take a moment to appreciate the beauty of pancakes shall we?

...

Ah yes, all bow to the guy (or girl, I'm not sexist) who invented pancakes.

That was a nice moment. Back to the reality where Annabeth just mutely sprinted into the bathroom, leaving me alone in the empty restaurant. The first thought that came to my mind was a conversation I'd had with the guys a few months back.

**FLASHBACK**

"_Boom! Take that Gracie!" I laughed as Travis made a slam dunk on the little plastic baby basketball net that Jason had gotten for his third birthday._

"_Oh shut it Stoll, I could do that when I was four." Jason said, taking the toy basketball Travis had and chucking it into the garage._

"_Well Travie is mentally a two-year-old so he has you beat Blondie." I joked, grabbing the real basketball from the ground._

"_Yeah! Wait what?" We all laughed at Travis' stupidity. "Whatever, I didn't sleep too well last night!" We all made pouty looks to mock him, Frank's was the best best because of his baby face._

"_What's troubling you son?" Beck asked like a shrink. Travis shot him a glare as Connor came back out, his hands full of soda._

"_Finally!" Frank groaned, grabbing a Diet Coke like it was a life preserver. We had been playing a pick-up game of basketball in Jason's driveway until Travis found Jason's baby basketball hoop. We were all drenched in sweat. Like dark matching stains on all of our shirts, I could literally feel my sweaty hair dripping into my face. Nice mental image for you there._

"_What are we talking about?" Connor asked, handing Jason his Sprite like a waiter._

"_Your brother's lack of sleep." I informed him, spinning the basketball around on my finger like my mom had taught me to. He laughed wildly._

"_Yeah, Katie keeps him up all night." He said through laughs. We all froze. I'm not going to explain what we were all thinking, if you don't get it you're too young to know._

"_Hold up!" Beck said, pausing as he was cracking open his Coke. "You're sleeping with Katie?" He asked bluntly. Travis turned bright red._

"_I wish, but n-" Connor interrupted his brother._

"_Ha! Nah, she texts him _all night long_." We all sighed and continued what we'd been doing. Travis groaned and sat down right in the middle of the court, Dr. Pepper in hand. (We really like a variety of sodas don't we?)_

"_It's ridiculous! Seriously woman, I'll see you in the morning, why do we need to talk all the time?" Frank, Beck, and Connor nodded like they understood._

"_Hazel thinks that since we don't see each other at school that we should talk all afternoon." We all rolled our eyes._

"_Well, she's in middle school, that's how 12 year olds treat their boyfriends." Jason said smartly. Frank shot him a glare._

"_She's not 12 you jerk." He growled._

"_Sorry, 13." Beck said sarcastically, sitting down next to Travis on the pavement and taking a long swig of the pop._

"_Better." We all laughed as his face turned red. It was mean of us, but he was dating a 13 year old and we could not wrap our minds around it. He knew we thought she was nice and pretty and all that, he didn't need to keep being reminded, we all ribbed each other about girls. It's what guys do._

"_Well, I think Lacy might be the worst. I get about 20 calls a day saying 'Hey babe, do I look better in pink or yellow?'." Connor said, flopping next to his brother. I joined the crowd and sat down with them._

"_Two things," I said, holding up two fingers. "One, does she seriously call you babe? And two, she looks better in pink." A few of them laughed as Connor stuck his tongue out at me._

"_Silena likes to update me whenever anythi- speak of the devil." He pulled his ringing cell out of his pocket as we all laughed._

"_What's princess got to say?" Frank asked, knowing that was his text tone._

"_N-nothing." He stammered. Connor shot me an evil look._

_It didn't take too much work, Connor tackled him as I pried the phone from his hand with difficulty. Once I had it I did what any manly man would do, I ran as fast as I could to hide behind Jason._

"_Give me back my phone!" Connor couldn't hold him down at all. Maybe I should've gone for the attack. Oh well._

"_You have a choice here Beck," I started, knowing full well that I was an idiot. "Either you let us read this message, or I'll tell Silena about Kylla." His eyes widened and everyone froze. Beck had told Silena she was his first kiss but he'd dated Kylla Solace in 8th grade 'secretly'._

"_You wouldn't dare." He said dangerously. I smirked._

"_Wouldn't I?" We all seemed to be collectively holding our breath._

"_Fine." He said like an angry toddler. I handed it to Jason since my dyslexia was not a fan of Charles' phone. Jason rolled his eyes but opened the messages anyways. He let out a short laugh._

"_What does it say?" Travis asked mischievously, Jason cleared his throat and read._

"'_Hey teddy bear," We all bursted into bouts of laughter and it took us a moment to calm down. "I was just thinking about you, I hope you're having a fun BOYS day," Jason said boys really loudly so I think it was capitalized. "I miss you so so much, can't wait to see you tonight, and love you. xoxoxoxoxo smiley face.'" Jason tossed the phone back to Beck as we all stood in silence, processing what we'd just heard. The reaction was mostly:_

"_YOU SAID YOU LOVE HER?"_

"_That's a whole lot of hugs and kisses."_

"_Does the BOYS day thing mean she thinks you're cheating on her?"_

"_Bro, we're all spending the night here, what does she mean see you tonight? Are we inviting the girls?"_

"_YOU GUYS SAID THE L-WORD? ARE YOU INSANE?"_

"_Nice going teddy bear."_

_"Wait wait wait, you're ditching us tonight? BROS BEFORE H- you know what, Silena's a nice girl, real pretty, I don't blame you."_

_We all stayed mad at him for a good 15 minutes more (I'll spare you the details)._

"_Jackson, you are one smart dude." We all turned and looked at Jason in shock. All of us were sitting on the massive mansion steps of Jason's house (except Beckendorf, we'd shunned him to the grass for the time-being)._

"_What?" I asked. They were always mocking me about my grades and thick-headedness. I hadn't been called smart since I sassed Coach Hedge and he told me I had a smart mouth._

"_You on drugs bro?" Connor joked, looking scared. (Just so you know, no, we've never tried or done or thought about doing drugs, that's just stupid.)_

"_No, I'm serious. We've spent most of the day complaining about our girlfriends, maybe Percy's got the right idea." Jason amended._

"_That's what I've been telling you guys for ages." I said, shrugging. Beck laughed from his lawn timeout._

_"Yeah," Connor said slowly. "Or, maybe he's just an idiot because no matter how annoying they are they still make out with us and are okay to be seen in public with us." I rolled my eyes. As Travis grimaced._

_"Not all of the time, once Katie told a good looking barista I was her brother. And she got his number." We all collapsed into laughter._

_"She did not!" Frank breathed through wheezy laughs. Travis nodded._

_"She did, and as payback I got to go hit on a girl at the gym." That made us laugh even more._

_"Why have I not heard this story?" Connor squealed, wiping tears from his eyes._

_"I dunno, never came up I guess." Our laughter died out slowly after we all got the mental picture of what Travis' face would look like out of our heads._

_"Besides that, I do stand by what I said." Connor said to me. I raised an eyebrow. "Even though she's a pain sometimes, I would rather have her than nobody." _

_"Aw, that's sweet, how 'bout I tell her you said that?" I said, smirking at him._

_"He's right Perce, you need a girl. Especially before Senior year ends." I rolled my eyes at Beck._

_"You guys know I don't do high school relationships." I said for what felt like the billionth time._

_"Well the ladies better watch out when Jackson hits the dating scene in college!" Travis said, laughing. I punched him in the arm, hiding my fear at that comment._

_He was right, one more year and I had no more excuses. None. Nada. I had said high school relationships, and I would be 18. About time for a first girlfriend, but I still couldn't shake what my mom had said to me six years ago._

_"Oh your first girlfriend better like commitment because you're too loyal to ever break up with anyone."_

_Newsflash mom: YOU DON'T SAY THAT TO YOUR ELEVEN YEAR OLD SON! I was convinced that when Nancy Bobofit said hi to me in the hallway the next day I'd be marrying her someday. I couldn't speak to girls for a week. The problem was, she was right. I totally would never be able to leave a girl unless she like tried to kill my mom or something I guess. I barely got through Grover leaving me, and I was prepared to be his best friend till we died before that._

_Luckily with my horrible memory, ADHD, opinionated comments, and all around idiocy, I wouldn't be the one doing the breaking up._

_At some point I'd have to have a first girlfriend, it wasn't like I didn't like girls. It wasn't that at all. I like girls, a lot, but there were so many mistakes I could make..._

Like the one's mom made? _I tried not to wince as the thought entered my mind._

_Sure, she'd gotten pregnant at 16. Sure, her boyfriend had been a lunatic obsessed with deadly ocean waves. Sure, her first husband was an abusive alcoholic fugitive of the law. Sure, her second husband was a spineless teacher who I'm pretty sure would never understand her._

_But it wasn't like she'd destroyed everything. She had a good life, I love her to death, it's just...She could have had so much more and been so much happier without all of that._

_"Percy, can I go to college with you?" Travis asked, looking sincere. I rolled my eyes, little did they know there was no way I was going to college._

_"Why? So he can take every single girl on campus?" Beck snorted._

_"Yes, and I shall be his wingman, therefore second best, therefore desirable." He explained like it was a science. I shoved him over with a glare._

_"No you cannot go to college with me." ...because I won't even be going to college myself._

_"Darn." _

_We sat like that for a while, talking about me, dating, college, life, and that horrible Calculus teacher we had._

_"Question." We all turned to look at Beck. "If for no apparent reason your girl walks away like she doesn't want you to follow her, do you follow her?" We all pondered this._

_"Yes."_

_"No."_

_"Depends, did you say something stupid first?"_

_"Why, did Princess do that to you?"_

_"How fast is she walking and where are you at?"_

_Our responses all muddled together as Beck tried to listen to our completely useless advice._

"_Thanks guys, real clear."_

"_No problemo Becky."_

**END OF FLASHBACK**

Six pages of a worthless story to explain my internal debate over if I should follow Annabeth. On one hand, she could be sick, which means I should check on her, on the other, she could just want to be alone, which means I should leave her be.

I followed her slowly, like that was a compromise. Pan's Cakes wasn't the nicest place, sorta dingy, with green paint on the walls and yellow tables. It had a feeling like it was 50 years old, like a greaser and a girl in a poodle skirt could walk in right now.

Annabeth would be cute in a poodle skirt.

I could hear her heavy breathing next to the door.

"Annabeth? Hey, are you alright?" I decided not to try and go into the girl's bathroom and just attempt to talk to her. She didn't answer. "What's wrong?" I kept asking and asking and asking for a good ten minutes. I thought she might've passed out again towards the end there. "Beth? Beth, are you okay? Annabeth, seriously, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I'll be out in a second." I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. I decided that since she was conscious I could go find us a table.

"Percy?" I heard Mrs. Underwood ask in her southern accent. We all called her Ma though, not sure why.

"Yep?" I stepped out of the little alcove where the doors to the bathrooms were. She smiled at me, holding two plates up like she was showing a reason to find me.

"There you are! Where do you want these?" _I wonder if Annabeth likes booths or table? _I chose a booth. "Where's the little girl?" She asked, setting a plate of bright blue pancakes in front of me. She knew me so well.

"Bathroom." I answered, taking the syrup bottle from the table over. She nodded. I thanked her for the pancakes, not like I expected her to leave.

"So..." She drawled mischievously. "Is she your girlfriend?" I fumbles the powdered sugar shaker.

"Wha-what? No!" She put her hands up in surrender.

"Just checking." She said through a smile. I shot her a playful glare. I first met Ma in 6th grade at a Sleepover in Grover's house. She was his aunt who was bringing over some tomatoes. I thought she was one of the nicest people I'd ever met even though when she pinched my cheeks with her long nails it hurt.

"Well, she's very cute-" I began to nod when I saw some blonde hair in my peripheral vision.

"Beth!" She looked okay, not like she'd been crying or anything (thank goodness), she looked a little ashamed. Ma turned and smiled at her before bustling back into the kitchen. She always had to be doing something.

"Sorry I-wait, are those pancakes _blue?" _I laughed at her wide eyes.

"No you're going crazy. Yes they're blue." She stared at them for a few more seconds.

"Why?" She asked carefully, still not sitting down.

"Why not?" I countered. Her eyes (I'd stolen her glasses already and was debating if I should give them back) flicked up to my face before she shrugged.

"Fair enough." And she slid into the booth across from me. I wondered if I should explain why I liked blue food but realized I might have to mention Gabe and I didn't want to do that. "Sorry about that." She muttered, tilting her fork towards the bathrooms.

"It's fine." I lied, it was anything but fine that being at a restaurant with me and Ma gave her a panic attack. "You're good now?" I glanced at her face to make sure she wasn't lying.

"Yeah." I began to worry that we'd have nothing to talk about with her shyness and how different we were. "How do you know that lady?" I couldn't hide my smile as she attempted conversation. I had a feeling she didn't do it that much.

"Grover's aunt. She's really sweet." I said around a mouthful of the best pancakes in the world.

"Makes good pancakes." She said, cutting another bite with her fork.

"The best pancakes." I said, nodding.

"Rachel and the twins hate pancakes, I haven't had them in forever." She admitted. I contemplated asking about Rachel, I was super curious about that but shook the thought. Annabeth _wasn't _Rachel. It didn't matter that they were sisters. If I didn't know that what would we talk about?

"They're crazy." I said, pointing my fork at her like it was a fact. "Waffles and pancakes are basically the reason I exist." She laughed a little.

"Good to know your existence is determined by breakfast foods."

"Well, if breakfast is banned you'll know where to find me...digging my own grave." She laughed again, this time more of a real laugh. The one I really like and keep commenting about stupidly.

"So is that Percy Jackson's life goal? To eat as much unhealthy breakfast foods as he possibly can?" I thought about that. I didn't really have a life goal.

"Mostly just anything bad for me." She shook her head.

"Sounds like a yummy goal." She had to be one of the best people I'd ever met. She glanced up from her plate and laughed when she saw my face.

"What?" I asked defensively.

"You've got a little somethin'." She said pointing to her chin. Oh how charming Percy, real attractive. As I am a 17 year old dude I naturally tried to lick it off instead of grabbing a napkin. She had to set her fork down to keep from dropping it she was laughing so hard.

"Not funny where's it at?" I demanded. She just kept laughing. "Get it off!" She shook her head and handed me a napkin with the hand that wasn't holding her stomach through laughter. I wiped it (the syrup) off finally, glaring at her. "You find my struggle humorous you jerk."

"Guilty as charged." She admitted.

Breakfast continued like that. We took turns picking songs on the jukebox (by the way her taste in music is impeccable), joking, and laughing more than I had since my mom was diagnosed. I figured out that she was doing an online college program alongside Senior year, that her step brothers and sister were her opposite but Malcom was more like her. She wanted her glasses back but I refused. Ma gave us the meals for free. No one else came in the whole time we were there (which we learned was about an hour and thirty minutes though it seemed so much shorter). She even let me finish her pancakes.

I finally had to get us out because I had a weekend practice for swimming that day.

"Are you going to school tomorrow or ditching with Travis?" Annabeth asked as I opened the exit door for her.

"Oh I'll go, can't be that bad right?"

Oh how wrong I was.

**YAY! I UPDATED WITHIN A WEEK LOOK AT ME GO!**

**That chapter did not go anything like I was planning.**

**Oh well.**

**Three cheers for Percabeth being adorable and Percy being perfect! Oh and also for some bro bonding that we were lacking before!**

**I'll just get right down to business.**

**The new stories vote I've had you do is here for round 2! Running Back to You and Sleepless have been ELIMINATED! You now have three options:**

**Clash**

**Forever and Ever**

**Movie Screens**

**I wrote another summary and gave you longer quotes. YOU CAN VOTE AGAIN!**

**CLASH** **- (PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS) **

I haven't been entirely honest with you guys. I know I know, this one got the most votes by _far _but I don't know if it still will when I tell you this.

There are no Romans.

None, nada. Zero Romano.

It could almost be considered an AU I guess. An alternate universe where Percy is amazingly powerful, and Camp Half Blood is super awesome (that doesn't sound like an AU does it?).

Heroes of Olympus is Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Piper, Thalia, Nico, and Clarisse saving the world. I _might_ add Hazel and Frank as Greek demigods if you beg enough. I know everyone loves Jason and Reyna and Camp Jupiter but it just doesn't work. At all.

I'm sorry.

Anyways, it's still about Percabeth and the young demigods learning that they fall in love, die, get betrayed, get claimed, become happy, become sad, and all of that stuff. The missing Romans won't make much difference really, just make the Greeks even cooler. I hope you still like the idea of it!

**QUOTE: **"_W-where am I?" I asked, wishing my voice would stay steadier. Older really really pretty Annabeth looked at me with pity. That could not be a good sign. My Annabeth, the 12 year old one, was too busy watching them carry Luke away to notice that I wasn't there._

"_Percy, come with us." Older Annabeth said, her voice almost unrecognizable from the one I knew. I gulped. Silena, Charles, Castor, and Michael were all with people who weren't their future selves. Silena was crying._

_I'm not the sharpest sword in the armory but I could figure what that meant._

_I died._

_It wasn't like I'd been expecting to live past 16 and based off what Annabeth had said I would've been 17 now, but learning hey, you die, kind of sucks._

"_Seaweed Brain, c'mon." She said impatiently, nodding towards where we were probably headed. The Annabeth I know finally turned to look at me. She looked too upset about Luke to care about me. "Perseus Orion Jackson, come here. I'll explain it all." A minute ago I couldn't stop gawking at Annabeth's perfection but I couldn't care less now. I walked towards the blonde girls (girl? If it's the same person is it plural? I don't know, this is confusing.) thoughtlessly. _

_I thought I'd be able to handle this better._

"_Percy," She (Gorgeous future Annabeth) bent down so our faces were level. Her eyes were the only thing that reminded me of the Annabeth I know. "You're not dead. I promise." I humored her and nodded, but I knew better, she was just trying to calm me down. "Let's go to our cabin."_

_I barely even noticed that she called the Poseidon cabin hers._

**FOREVER AND EVER - (PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS AU)**

She protected him from bullies. He introduced her to Winnie-The-Pooh. She helped him learn spelling words. He made her stop working too hard. They were sort of opposites really, but when your roots are so intertwined it's impossible to not grow together. They never go a day without seeing each other. He can name off her _entire _list of favorite books and she knows the _exact _amount of blue food dye to get his favorite shade of blue cookie.

He's admitted how much he hates his dad, to her and her only. She's never cried in front of everyone but him.

Maybe it was a mistake, letting them be _so close_, because all it did was hurt them in the end.

After an ugly year of court battles he's taken to live with his father, the one he's never met, for the next 6 years. He's allowed no communication with her or his mom. Well, he _does _share an iTunes account with her. That's how they talk. They buy songs for each other. She takes care of his mom. He stays alienated from his "family".

It's six years later and they've changed. Physically, mentally, emotionally, they've changed.

So has their relationship.

**QUOTE: **_Sally had probably cried for the past 2 days...non-stop. She _had _to fall asleep at some point didn't she? I tried to console her when I could but it mostly just resulted in _me _crying. Her "He won't choose me!" cries weren't helping either._

_I couldn't disagree though. For the past six years he'd been a billionaire's son, living on his dad's yachts and cruise ships, meeting girls from around the world, eating as much as he wanted with everything he could ever dream of. Sally was poor and New York was cold, he had been 10 when he last saw us. Ten. _

_I wouldn't be mad or blame him for choosing his dad._

_You'd think I'd be over my ten year old best friend as a 15 year old girl._

_I wasn't._

_I never would be._

_Percy was and forever will be the best thing that ever happened to me. It's just like we used to say._

_"Best friends forever and ever Wise Girl?"_

_"Forever and ever Seaweed Brain."_

**MOVIE SCREENS - (A PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS AU)**

Annabeth Chase was just your average fifteen year old girl.

With a few exceptions of course.

With an IQ of 192, she could do long division by age 3. She went to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT, Caltech, Princeton and Oxford. Each for one semester. Valedictorian every time. Until she'd vanish without a trace.

She was obviously exceptional at all things involving her mind, but nothing even _countered _her hacking and profiling skills.

It took her 5 hours and a crappy $100 dollar laptop to hack into the single most secure database in the entire world.

Olympus.

Olympus, the massive corporation that took care of everything from terrorist attacks to plagues. The 5,000 man operation that could rule the world but prefered to stay in the shadows.

Home of the best and the brightest, if you're good, you're theirs.

And Annabeth is about to be theirs.

Percy Jackson, is 19 year old specialist who is the best of the best of the best. An actual legend in the realm of Olympus. He could take on missions that should need at least 20 good agents. Alone. He's hard and cold, just like the job requires. He talks seldom and listens always. He pulls the trigger when others are too scared. He's scary and harsh but knows how to get the job done.

When Olympus is facing its biggest threat yet an unusual team of failures and oddballs must band together to handle it, led by the pair of Percy and Annabeth who are better at fighting each other than the enemy.

Hopefully they find some common ground.

**QUOTE: **"_Shut up Blondie." Percy growled, holding his temper. The tiny little blonde girl was just so infuriating. She looked up from her computer screen for the first time in over an hour._

"_Well aren't you charming." She drawled sarcastically. Chiron looked between the two with fear. This was a recruitment mission and Percy was about to scare the asset off._

"_Charming isn't really in a specialist's job description Miss Chase." He amended. She looked at Chiron with a 'seriously?' expression._

"_What is then?" She asked, looking back down at the computer again._

"_Killing mostly." Percy answered like one would say 'crocheting pictures of puppies for my niece'. She attempted to not look surprised at his bluntness._

"_If you're gonna kill me I recommend making it quick, I'm pretty persuasive if you hesitate." She said simply. _

"_If I wanted to kill you you'd already be dead Princess." Percy said with a scary smirk._

"_True." Chiron muttered, hoping that meant Percy wasn't going to kill her. "Now, Miss Chase-"_

"_Annabeth." She corrected._

"_Never calling you that." Percy commented._

"_Alright," Chiron said slowly. "Annabeth, this job would put you in countless life or death situations, you have to be prepared to lose everything you have ever had and be willing to make sacrifices. Willing to pull the trigger. Willing to go for the 'greater good'. You have to follow commands. No arguments. You have to be okay with dying for seemingly no reason or living forever without ever knowing the big picture. If we doubt you, we'll kill you. If it's for the greater good, we'll kill you. You don't have days off. You don't have family. You don't have friends. You have you, and your assignments. It's a rough job and not everyone can handle it." The guys looked at her expectantly._

_She glanced over her laptop with those startling gray eyes. "When do we start?"_

**SO THOSE ARE THE OPTIONS! It would be really great if you guys voted and AMAZING if you gave me a reason why or requested that something happen in the story!**

**I'll update asap!**

**Love you!**

**-Lili**


	15. Still Sunday

**Up up up up update!**

**Woohoo!**

**Chapter Fifteen is here for you to read! (Can you believe we're already 15 chapters in?)**

**Even more shocking, can you believe we're 15 chapters in and the story has taken only three days of time up? That's just crazy. No one is allowed to tell me it's going too fast, this is insane.**

**Sorry it took so long! I had a super busy week, November is FLYING by, I'm trying to update ASAP all of the time, it's not Review numbers, it's just me actually being able to write 20 some pages amongst things like school, parents, sleep, and other things. I swear, I write some of this locked in my bathroom, laying on the tile floor on my phone's Google Docs app. I. Am. Trying.**

**Alright, so I'll get on with the responses and we'll see where we're at after:**

**Awesome Person: I have absolutely no idea.**

**Guest: No, I cannot do more than one chapter at a time. If I did, my updates would be like once a month and everybody else would kill me.**

**Guest: Ha! No Percy doesn't die. He's just not at camp when the younger demigods show up. I couldn't kill Percy!**

**Azuphere: Yeah, as of my most recent test that was my IQ. I'm not like a prodigy or a math whiz or anything but I do have an IQ of 154. Thank you for your compliments! You're so sweet!**

**FailedGuardianofPandora'sBox: I hope the glass didn't shatter! Owie! Thank you though!**

**ShadowDeathSlayer: Ha, yeah, this story was just really lacking in some background for people other than Annabeth and Rachel so I put that in there for this chapter and next.**

**Guest: I don't know how long Hidden will be but I have a lot of stuff planned for it, and the new story will be posted a little after Hidden is done.**

**I have responses to the collective public too:**

**1) In Movie Screens a lot of you were complaining about the age gap. Honestly I don't think it's too ridiculous in the way I would write it but if no one else would like it I might consider shortening it. It was written that way to accentuate their differences, because that's a lot of what the story is about. I could make Annabeth a little older I guess...**

**2) I was going to tell you guys you can stop voting this chapter because the summaries are taking up a lot of space, but IT WAS A TIE! YOU GUYS MADE A 58 to 58 TIE! Howwwwww? And Movie Screens is at 53. I was hoping for a distinctive obvious choice guys! What if 20 of the votes for one are from one guest who wants that one but nobody else does? I need a clearer choice! So, the three summaries at the end will be open for voting on from everyone so by the end we have a CLEAR winner, runner up, and 3rd place.**

**3) A lot of people say "I love them all!" which is totally fine and nice, I just need to clarify one thing. I'll probably write all of these stories at some point. You're voting for which one you can't WAIT to read because I'm doing one story at a time to avoid abandoning one.**

**4) I'm shocked no one commented about me MAKING SOLANGELO CANON. I mean wow, I thought you'd be all over that.**

**I think I'm updating pretty well, and if you disagree well just a heads up but I wrote 3 scenes for this story that will take place in the future that have to do with (SORT OF SPOILERS): Annabeth not knowing how to swim, Senior Prom, and well, I won't tell you that one ;-).**

**This chapter has less Percabeth than usual because this is about other people a too.**

**Mmmkay, so I'll just get on with it. **

**I own none of PJO or the music.**

**Happy Reading!**

**ANNABETH'S POV**

I actually had...fun?

Once I got over the anxiety I actually had a lot of fun talking to Percy. If I kept telling myself he's not a popular, handsome, athletic guy in my grade then I just considered him a friend, like Rachel, and he was the best.

What I learned about Percy, in list form:

-He likes old music as much as I do.

-He thinks people who are nice are the reason the world goes round.

-He hates school classes.

-He can hold still for about 3 seconds.

-He can eat 13 pancakes and not once say he's full.

-He's really interested in Rachel being my sister but acts like he's not.

-His chuckle is probably the hottest sound known to man.

-He's not a morning person.

-He basically worships his mom.

It was while we were listening to Jack & Diane for the 3rd time that I decided he was smarter than he seemed.

"I adore this song as much as the next 1980's rock n roll loving guy but sometimes I think it's just ridiculous." He said, pointing his fork at the old-style jukebox we'd taken turns picking songs on.

"How can you think Jack and Diane is ridiculous? It's like the anthem of every teenage couple ever." I said, taken aback. He'd been singing along every time we put it on or at least lip synched the lyrics. Not important, but he's not a terrible singer although it's not like he should consider a career in it or anything.

"Exactly," He shrugged, his t-shirt sleeve rising up so I could see his tattoo easily. Tattoos are always attributed to bad people, but I think Percy got them because he liked having things he cared about always with him. "It basically says that high school is the most important time in your life and I don't agree with that." I paused to listen as John Mellencamp sang through the gritty speakers.

"_Hold on to sixteen as long as you can, changes come around real soon, make us women and men, oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of livin' is gone." _It was impossible to not mouth the words, I mean c'mon, it's Jack and Diane. He smirked at me.

"Addictive, but ridiculous." He pointed out.

He was right of course, it's 4 minutes of saying 'this high school couple loves each other and also life only gets worse after 16'.

"I guess it's for people who live in the moment." I said, feeling uncomfortable about bashing one of Rachel's favorite songs.

"Or people who live in their 'glory days'." He held up his fingers in air quotations around glory days. It would have made a better impact if he hadn't been holding his butter knife and dropped it on to his jeans while trying to do so.

I laughed at him as the song winded down. Okay, so he wasn't as stupid as his grades show. He's the epitome of street smart. _The opposite of you_. I wished there was an off switch for that little voice in my head.

"You're up for the song choice." I told him. He jumped up out of the booth, still wiping butter off of his pants.

"Should I go for something you know or you don't?" He asked. I replied with something I know.

There was something (I apologize for saying it) magical about this place. It looked like it hadn't been updated in at least 30 years with its neon lit juke box, red vinyl stools, and old diner booths. Ma even had a timeless look about her. Percy with his messy hair, jeans, and black t-shirt, leaned over the 20 year old jukebox looked like he could've been from the 50s, or 60s, or 70s, or 80s, or 90s, or now. It felt like we weren't in Mystic County, it felt like we were in a cafe from Grease or Footloose.

"You sweetie's done?" Ma walked out of the swinging doors, fixing a curl. I felt like I should pick up the dishes and carry them into the kitchen myself, like we were visiting family not at a restaurant.

"Um yeah," I said, Percy looked around from flipping through the jukebox pages.

"I'll finish hers don't take them yet." He said as she picked up his plate that was _spotless_. I gaped at him, he'd already had a plate on _nine whole pancakes_, how was that even possible?

Greatest mystery of life = Teenage guy's metabolism.

"Alrighty, oh if you kids want to listen to something different we've got a radio. That ol' thing hasn't been updated in over 20 years." She said, gesturing to the jukebox.

"It's perfect." Percy and I said at the same time. He turned and smiled at me, making my stomach flop. _No no Annabeth, you're his FRIEND today and nothing tomorrow._

Ma smiled at us and bustled off with his empty plate, humming Jack and Diane (it plays back in the kitchen too) in the silence.

"That took longer than planned." He walked back over and slid into the seat as the all familiar piano started playing.

One of the greatest songs of all humanity.

"_Just a small town girl livin' in a lonely world, she took a midnight train goin anywhere..."_ I squeaked a little as I recognized it. To my surprise Percy didn't sing along.

"How do you not sing along to Don't Stop Believin'?" I asked incredulously.

"Don't want to ruin it for you." He said shrugging. "You sure you're done with this?" He asked, pointing to my plate of 4 pancakes (Ma had brought me 6).

"Yeah, I'm stuffed." He didn't need to know I rarely ate breakfast. He'd just pity me more.

"You're crazy." He said as he pulled the plate towards him.

"Says the man eating his tenth pancake." I countered. He shot me a slight glare, not looking too scary with his mouth full of pancake.

"How do you eat these? They're like sand." He said, ignoring my statement before swallowing like it was painful and grabbing the half empty syrup bottle. He apparently likes his pancakes _drowned_ in syrup.

"_Streetlight, people, livin' just to find emotion..." _I ignored him to listen to the song. I hadn't played it forever. It's one of those that you feel like you never stop listening to but really you never do.

We went on like that. I picked the next song (Free Falling by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), he sang along when his mouth wasn't full, we played another round of 20 questions (no deep questions, just random), drank chocolate milkshakes, Ma never brought out a check so I think it was on the house, and I had the most fun I'd ever had.

How sad is that? An AM breakfast with Percy was the most fun I'd ever had.

"You got that swim meet tomorrow, hun?" We both jumped (we were arguing over him giving me my glasses back) as Ma yelled from the doorway.

"Yeah it's out of town though." He answered her. Oh yeah, he'd be gone half of the day to go to the meet tomorrow. Good, then he had less time to acknowledge me.

"I'll be there!" She said, he tried to object but she swung the door shut immediately.

"It's like an hour away." He muttered to no one in particular. I laughed.

"Why can't she go?" I asked, deciding I wasn't getting my glasses then.

"Huh?" He looked up from where he'd been staring at the closed door. "Oh no real reason, I just don't like crowds at swim meets." He shrugged again. He shrugs a lot. Not that I mind or anything, I like his tattoo and it straightens his posture a bit. Like really, he has the worst posture. I looked like I was his height the way he slumped, which was so not accurate. He had almost a foot on me. I had originally thought he was like 6'4" or something because he looked tall next to everyone but now that I'd been near him he was more of 6'1" maybe 6'2".

"Oh." I wanted to ask him why but his hunched shoulders made me decide to not. "Don't you have weekend practice today then?" He froze.

"Crap." He muttered.

"What?" What had I done? Had I messed it up? What if I did something wrong.

"I gotta go. What is with me lately?" He polished off the last few bites of pancake.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, panicking. We'd been there for an hour and a half (time flies when you're having fun) and yet I still didn't want to leave.

I wanted to stay in the little timeless restaurant listening to timeless music with the feeling that if you didn't look out the window nothing else existed. I got the irrational idea of just staying here forever. I promise I would never get sick of the music or the pancakes as long as it never ended.

"Yeah, I have practice at 9 and I have to be there early, being Captain and all." He cursed again, hopping out of the booth. It was 8:15, after he ran me home it would be 8:25, and I don't know if he had to change or something...yeah he'd probably be late.

"Okay." I replied, looking out at the parking lot that looked a lot less timeless and more scary.

"Sorry, I was just late on Friday too." I nodded.

"It's fine, let's go." We thanked Ma, she gave Percy another hug that lifted her feet off of the ground and she gave me one that crushed my ribs.

Her "Come back soon!" was the last thing I heard before Percy opened the door.

"Are you going to school tomorrow or ditching with Travis?" I asked, not realizing I'd been curious about that until I asked.

"Oh I'll go, can't be that bad right?" He said, holding the door like a gentleman. If I ever saw his mom again I would commend her for doing such a good job.

"True." I said.

"Plus I've got the meet." He said. It wasn't as cold out as it had been when we came in, it was actually shaping up to be a really hot day, it was August but it had been the coldest year in Mystic history. Had I really only been a Senior for 2 weeks?

"Oh yeah." We walked out to Blackjack in silence as I steeled myself for another ride.

"How do you get to school?" He asked curiously while grabbing his keys. Uh oh he wasn't thinking what I thought he was thinking was he?

"Rachel used to drive me, I walk now." I answered like it was no big deal. Which it wasn't.

"Need a ride?" Ouch. Yep he was thinking it. "I mean your house is right on the way if you want-"

"I'm good. I like walking." He nodded and got on Blackjack, not arguing. I thought maybe he was glad, he probably didn't want to drive me, people would see us.

"You better get a ride by December or I'm taking you." He said, not a threat, but a promise. _Come on! _I thought angrily as I hopped on behind him, sucking in my breath before I did so I didn't make a weird sound when I found myself pressed up behind him.

"No way." But he couldn't hear my voice over the engine.

"You good?" He turned to ask. Why did his voice have to be so much louder than mine? I wrapped my arms around his stomach - if I acted like it wasn't awkward then it wouldn't be.

Yeah that idea is as stupid as it seems. I nodded against his muscled (I'm sorry, that adjective is always necessary) back.

And we were off.

**PERCY'S POINT OF VIEW  
**Practice was a mess. It was so bad. I won't even go into that much detail. Apparently whatever happened at that party on Saturday had actually been really serious. Travis, Frank, Connor, Castor, Pollux, and a few others didn't even show up. Will Solace was there for about 5 minutes before Matt Sloan made a homophobic comment and he left angrily telling us to "Win without him!".

I told Matt we'd win without him too and sent him home after he said that (it actually felt really good, I dislike Matt). By the end it was me, Mitchell, and Harley (coolest name ever by the way) left. Coach Ty "Triton" worked us extra hard, trying to get one of us to admit why 10 out of 13 swimmers were missing.

Not even Mitch cracked.

About halfway through Coach gave up on getting us to talk and started his usual rants about how stupid it was we didn't wear speedos.

Apparently because it's a public school some parent complained about how innapropriate they were like 30 years ago and now our district makes us wear wetsuits.

Not that any of us were complaining, well, besides Coach Triton.

"Decreases your speed it's ridiculous!" He grumbled as usual. Mitchell rolled his eyes at me. I was super glad we had to wear these things - I didn't need questions about the scars or the tattoos. Mostly the scars though. I once again mentally cursed Gabe for not just punching and kicking, cuts are a lot harder to hide.

"Good form Jackson!" He did realize I wasn't even in the pool right? "Take five!" He yelled before marching off, probably to go yell at the superintendent's receptionist yet again (seriously, it was like once a week when he would call them).

"Tomorrow is gonna be hell." Harley said, walking up to me with a towel over his shoulders. I took the towel to dry my dripping hair, it's not like he needed it with that buzzcut.

"Tell me about it." I groaned. If 13 guys couldn't deal with it what would happen with 1,000 kids all shoved together for a day?

"Were you even at the party?" He took his towel back.

"Nope, glad I wasn't though." I admitted. He nodded.

"You were needed." He said.

"What?" Needed? How was I _needed?_

"Could've used your fight breaking-up skills." I rolled my eyes. I didn't go to parties very often, it was watching stupid people do stupid stuff, and I don't drink. Well, I mean someone spiked my Diet Coke once but I don't think that counts. I wasn't even sure if I would drink when it's legal for me to, I was kind of scared. I'm pretty sure I exist because my parents were drunk, and Gabe had kind of showed me the horror of alcohol at a young age.

Normally at parties (if I go) I find a place, sometimes with my friends unless they're being idiots, and people watch (when you just laugh as people do stupid drunk stuff) until some guys or girls get in a fight. I'm always the fallback to break up the fights which is annoying and hurts but it's better than letting two people kill each other.

"Who attacked who?" I asked banaly, listening to Coach yell at someone on the phone.

"Reyna took Pipes _down_. Seriously, McLean's hair is a choppy mess because she came at her with scissors. It's only a matter of time before Drew shuns her from the pop squad for having bad hair." Harley was dead serious. Who left scissors laying around? Why were they fighting? Was Piper hurt? How's Jason handling this? Questions spun around my head like they were on a mobile.

"Is she okay?" I asked, deciding that was the most important. Not to mention, Reyna never drank, like me, we always sat on a couch on the side together judging people as she tried to tell Jason he shouldn't drink. He's a featherweight, I carry him out to his car by 30 minutes in most of the time.

"Yeah she's fine. Broke Reyna's nose though." He shuddered. I gaped at him. Seriously what happened at this party?

"Wait, what were they fighting about?" I trusted Harley to tell me the truth.

"What do you think?" I gave him a confused look. "Golden boy dummy." Of course, they were fighting over Jason, this just gets better and better. "Apparently Piper kissed him in a game of spin the bottle a few weeks ago or something, and during the fight Reyna yelled something about stringing him along when she had plenty of other guys that like her. I don't know, they were really drunk." Harley shrugged as he took a drink out of the water bottle.

"That's just so out of character for them." I marveled. Normally Rey was level headed and Piper was nice to everyone.

Something had to have messed them up on Saturday.

"I know right? Everyone was being so weird. I left by 11, it spiraled out of control." I was about to ask about everybody else but Coach came out and whistled at us to get back in the pool.

He let us off early since we couldn't do much with 3 guys and I suddenly had a whole free afternoon, so I did what any Senior guy would do...I studied. Seriously, two weeks into the school year and I already had so much homework I couldn't breathe.

Back home I found Paul sleeping on the couch, looking like death. I left him be and went to my room.

I love my room. Sure, it's 8 square feet by 5 and I almost always hit my head on that stupid light, but I still love it. There wasn't a bare inch of actual wall, it was all covered by pictures and old vinyl records (four for one dollar at a thrift shop, how could I not?) of bands I love.

I smiled at the Jack & Diane record, remembering Annabeth humming along in Pan's Cakes. The pictures of my friends and I at that end of the year party was taped to the edge of it. Frank and I had Jason lifted up off of the ground, Piper and Reyna were dying of laughter at his terrified face. Travis and Connor were doing bunny ears behind Katie and Calypso, and Beck was kissing Silena on the cheek. Drew was sitting on the lap of a guy (Drake I think?) that graduated that year, looking at the camera with a winning smile. Rachel was nowhere to be seen, then I remembered she was the one taking the picture.

She said she liked photography.

I mentally pictured Rachel, wearing unfashionable clothes, taking pictures of Annabeth as she reads or does homework.

I couldn't picture it.

It just wasn't Rachel, I couldn't fathom her; this prissy, popular, mean girl; being so nice to Annabeth. Anna was so sweet maybe she was exaggerating Rachel's sisterliness...I hoped not.

I did homework for about 2 hours before the words in my textbook were indecipherable to me...dumb dyslexia. Paul said he was going to get me audiobooks but I'm pretty sure he forgot.

I ended up in my usual not-at-school-or-practice-or-the-hospital-or-eating-food position which meant laying on my twin bed with my feet on the wall because I'm too tall for this room listening to music.

My iPod was actually Jason's old one. It's really nice, but his sister told him all the music he had was crap (which it was, I mean, I don't mind a _little _Taylor Swift or Katy Perry playing in the background at a party, but seriously, how many albums do they have?) and he gave it to me along with his iTunes cards. I got a lot of his old stuff, his dad is super rich so he doesn't mind. His old PS3 with the scuff mark from when he dropped it was out in the living room and the guys and I passed around his old Xbox every few weeks or so (Beck has it now).

I listened to a bunch of music, trying to play it loud enough that I wouldn't be deaf tomorrow but also couldn't hear myself think about a teeny blonde with a big brain...the happy medium.

It was about halfway through Thriving Ivory's "Angels on the Moon" that I couldn't take it anymore. I missed my mom. I left too quick this morning, I should be there all of the time, I shouldn't be here listening to sad songs and thinking about girls like some...teenager. Dammit.

"_Don't tell me if I'm dying, Cause I don't wanna know, if I can't see the sun, maybe I should go. Don't wake me 'cause I'm dreaming of angels on the moon where everyone you know never leaves too soon..." _Yeah, maybe that song wasn't my best choice.

So I spent the next hour on the phone with my mom, her prying about Annabeth, me avoiding the topic like the plague.

"Mom." I said firmly, I sat up in my bed like that would make me more formidable over the phone.

"Hmm?" Oh great, she thought it was funny.

"Do me a favor, and just leave it be. Never gonna happen." I could hear her argumentative voice start up but at that moment Paul saved me.

"Percy?" He asked, he must've woken up.

"Listen, mom, I've gotta go, I'll be over for dinner okay?" She seemed a little surprised, but caved.

"Okay sweetie, love you."

"Love you too."

Paul wanted help fixing that stupid lock on the front door.

The rest of the day seemed pretty routine, fix something, feel awkward around Paul, go back to the hospital, talk to my mom like I didn't know she was dying, eat hospital food, avoid my friend's texts about how bad tomorrow would be, and going to bed at 11, but finally falling asleep around 2 AM.

**ANNABETH'S POINT OF VIEW **

**[A/N: Sorry for the back and forth POVs, I just want to get Sunday out of the way so next chapter can be entirely Monday, I know it's crappy I'm sorry.]**

Percy dropped me off in a rush, saying a jumble of polite things before cursing about being late and driving off. I assumed everyone would still be asleep, usually on weekends I get up between 5 AM and 6 AM, Susan and Dad at 10, the boys at 11:30, and if Rachel's home we're lucky if she's awake by 2 or 3 in the afternoon.

I wonder if my mom wakes up early like me.

But, today was different, because Rachel was already up, and gone. I found a note on her pillow after tiptoeing through the house and not finding her.

"_Annie -_

_Sorry I left without saying goodbye, where were you? I didn't even know you left. I have to go back to New York, coming here was fun and all but I have a life there too, Luke is driving me, he stayed at a Motel last night. I'm going to try and get a phone so we can talk more often, and you can tell me all about how Percy's doing ;-). I'm gonna miss you, and I'll be back for Halloween. Promise. Start thinking of costume ideas!_

_Don't tell Susan and Frederick that you know I left, they'll only be mad._

_Love you!_

_-RED_

_P.S. I dare you to talk to Percy at school ONCE this week."_

I read the note a few times over, making sure I didn't miss anything before accepting that she was gone.

I stayed in our room for the rest of the day, only sneaking up to go to the bathroom. I didn't want to face anyone after last night's burst of self confidence. I didn't want questions about Percy or anything.

They went to Aunt Sarah's house around 1 and didn't come back until after dinner. Dad tried to come down and talk to me about last night but gave up when he realized I'd gone mute.

Okay, not really. I was faking it. The easiest way to get my dad to stop acknowledging my existence is to remind him how messed up my mind is.

I did some college courses on the laptop Rachel had asked her real dad for, but she gave it to me right after as an early Christmas present. Around 1 AM I crawled into her bed (I was too tired to go up to my bunk) and slept, wondering if Susan and Dad would notice if I skipped school tomorrow.

**YAY! Done! Oh goodness this took too long to write. Such a busy week. **

**So, in case you didn't read it in the Author's Note up top I'm going to say it again:**

**I was going to tell you guys you can stop voting this chapter because the summaries are taking up a lot of space, but IT WAS A TIE! YOU GUYS MADE A 58 to 58 TIE! Howwwwww? And Movie Screens is at 53. I was hoping for a distinctive obvious choice guys! What if 20 of the votes for one are from one guest who wants that one but nobody else does? I need a clearer choice! So, the three summaries at the end will be open for voting on from everyone so by the end we have a CLEAR winner, runner up, and 3rd place.**

**So, three more summaries. Sorry.**

**CLASH (just a note: because there are no Romans Percy never loses his curse of Achilles)**

It was as normal as it could get at Camp Half Blood, The Lightning Theif quest was done, the world was saved, and Percy was just starting to fit in.

That is, until the Fates decided that they wanted some entertainment, and threw them all into the future.

Camp is 10 times the size it was, and when'd the minor gods get cabins? How long has that demigod high school been there, and why are there no distinct tables at the dining pavillion?

The young campers process some of the toughest news of their lives as they learn what happens to them in the most entertaining way possible.

_"Oh my gods it's baby Percabeth!" I jumped as yet another older camper squealed that in our direction, it looked like she was a daughter of Aphrodite._

_Oh great, they only get excited about stupid stuff._

_"Annabeth?" I looked at Percy. His eyes were wider than ever and I knew something was up. What got him all upset? Didn't he see them carry Luke off like he was the devil? Couldn't he just stop being scared for one moment and let me worry about- wait. Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait._

_Where's Percy?_

_I had just mentally pictured a skinny, messy haired, short, 17 year old boy...I hadn't seen an older Percy._

_Was he dead?_

_Of course he's dead, no child of the big three will live past 16, you know that. I thought._

_I tried to stammer something encouraging to him but found no voice. _

_How could I be so selfish? I've spent the 5 hours we've been here either worrying about Luke, who probably did betray us all, or whining about my future self being weak._

_At least I have a future self._

_I grabbed his hand, earning so many giggly looks from the future campers as older me ordered everyone around._

_"Stolls! Either sit down and shut up or get out of my sight!" Okay, maybe I hadn't lost my edge entirely._

_It wasn't really all at once, but it felt like it. The camp hushed slightly as I caught a whisper of the guy who looked like future Chris Rodriguez._

_"Percy's home."_

_It was like once those words were uttered a whole explosion happened. Everyone who had a clue of what was going on (the older campers) cheered and raced towards the entrance to camp. Older me stopped ordering everybody around and gestured for Percy and I to follow her._

_Huh, I guess Percy was here after all..._

**FOREVER AND EVER (just another note: This one would be most like Hidden since it's AU High School Percabeth and such, so you may think they're way too alike if you want something different...also,every chapter will start in a Winnie The Pooh Quote which is super cute)**

The Chases need a babysitter, Susan has to go back to work, Bobby and Matthew are only 2 months old, and 5 year Annabeth has to go to school during the day. Enter Sally Jackson, 22 year old mother of 5 year old Percy Jackson, who's in need of some serious money.

Since she can't afford a babysitter herself, Percy must go to Annabeth's everyday after school.

The two would never have been friends if they weren't forced together like this, she's a rich, smart, athletic girl with a big attitude, and he's a poor, scrawny, ADHD and Dyslexic boy who gets beat up at his public school everyday.

They're an unlikely pair, for starters, she has about 8 inches on him and has no problem flaunting it, but they become the best of friends. From blue cookies to spelling homework, or from Winnie-The-Pooh and Trivial Pursuit, they're together. Inseprable, although all they seem to do is 'argue' over who's better at what.

She's punched bullies in the face and held an ice pack to bruises for him, while he's told her dumb jokes and made her believe in herself. Even after Sally's babysitting is no longer needed not a day goes by where the two don't get together...ever.

But when Percy's estranged (and filthy rich) father comes back into the picture with his army of lawyers and mountains of press, Percy's torn away from all he loves and put on a cruise ship for 6 years.

It's impossible for people not to change in 6 years, but one thing hasn't changed: they're still best friends. She deals with people telling her to 'get over it' he's an elementary friend, and he handles a father who loses his temper whenever he mentions New York.

Everyone says they're crazy, staying so hung up on one person they haven't seen, nonetheless talked to in 6 years. But they don't know about how she stays up all night to find the perfect song to buy on their joint iTunes account, one that tells him how she misses him or how her day went, or sometimes just one he needs to hear. They don't know how he spends his free time trying to find a way to steal a tourist's phone, and how he's searching for his mom's phone number so he can talk to them.

But when he comes back, _if _he comes back, will they be able to just sit on the couch and watch Winnie-The-Pooh like they used to ever again? Or will the two finally realize why they never got over their 5 year old best friend?

_I walked shakily past Sally. Of course we'd been imagining this day, Percy's 10th birthday, when that helicopter picked him up and we said our goodbyes, but it hadn't hit me until now. _

_Percy is gone._

_I wouldn't see him until he was 16, and even then who knows if he'll choose us?_

_Sally was sobbing but I just felt empty as I walked slowly into his bedroom. His _old _bedroom. It was as small as always, wide enough I could touch both walls at the same time. The bed wasn't made like always, but the room didn't feel familiar. His clothes were missing from their usual piles on the floor, his school stuff wasn't tossed in the corner, and most importantly, he wasn't flopped on the bed, patting the empty space between him and the side for me to sit down and tell him all about the plot of a book I just finished._

_I blinked rapidly, wishing he'd show up, wishing this was a bad dream and I'd wake up in his bed with him on the floor in a sleeping bag like we always were when I slept over and I could hug him and tell him how much I cared about him. All I succeeded in doing was crying. I crawled onto the bed, thinking a ten year old shouldn't be allowed to be this sad._

_I cried into his pillow, wishing I'd thought to send it with him, but glad it smelled like Montauk and blue cookies. I cried and cried and cried until I heard a crinkle. The waterworks shut off as I sat up, flipping the pillow up frantically to find a sheet of my gray notebook paper, folded in half with "WISE GRIL" on it. I smiled at his dyslexia before flipping it open and staring at the little note (with fixed spelling because I can read his messy words like another language but others can't):_

_"Hi Annabeth I thought this would be the place mom wouldn't look but you would._

_I don't know how long I've been gone but I know I miss you for sure. I really don't know what to say, but knowing me, my goodbyes were probably pretty lame so I thought you should have something more._

_Just know I'll choose you guys when I can. Promise..._

_I have no clue what else to say here._

_Oh gotta leave you with some Winnie The Pooh! _

_"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."_

_Don't stop watching okay? Even if it's babyish, we'll watch it._

_Forever and Ever, _

_Percy (your BFF)_

_P.S. Take care of mom please._

_P.P.S. I'm crying so sorry if this is smudged._

_P.P.P.S. DON'T FORGET OUR ITUNES ACCOUNT ILL TRY AND WORK IT I PROMISE!_

**MOVIE SCREENS (side note: this is the one with the age gap people don't like...comment if you don't either) **

Percy Jackson has lived in Olympus since he was two. He's grown up amongst liars and killers, dreaming of becoming one himself. He spent his life watching these liars and killers save the world, and often accepted that they died doing so. By age 6 he can shoot a target within inches with a pistol from 300 feet away. He's trained by the best, to become the best. Now, at 19 he's the best assassin/specialist/liar and killer that the world has ever seen. Well, never seen, he's a secret agent, no one knows the corporation even exists unless they work for it.

Well, except for her. Annabeth Chase, certified genius, and a cute, blonde teenage girl with a nice personality who has people trying to kill her.

She's made people mad, that's for sure, and she didn't know what she was getting into when she hacked herself into the world's most secure servers, looking for answers about her mom.

She's recruited to Olympus as a hacker, engineer, profiler, and all around genius. What happens when 'I don't play well with others' Percy has to work with the 'little' girl who asks too many questions?

_"It's my job." He growled again, sounding like he wanted to punch something, probably her face. She groaned and followed, almost jogging after his long-legged stride._

_"Just take the thanks Jackson!" She begged. He whirled around, her almost running into his chest._

_"I don't take thank yous for doing what I do everyday. I don't like participation trophies." He said, keeping his temper down. All his life he'd worked with people who never showed gratitude, even when he took a bullet for them, and here this little smart alec girl was, trying to act like he's some hero._

_"Well you saved my life and I want to say thank you." She said stubbornly before looking down at her feet, her attitude wavering under his cold eyes. He remembered what Chiron had said "Play nice Percy, she isn't like you." and sighed._

_"You're welcome." He muttered. Her head shot up and she smiled brightly at him._

_"See? Was that so hard?" She said before skipping off, laptop in hand. He rolled his eyes and walked the other way, attempting not to smile._

**OKAY ALL DONE!**

**Thank you if you read this. I don't say thanks enough.**

**Sorry these author's notes are so long... they'll shorten up a lot when the voting is done.**

**Now, vote (hopefully) for one last time, and have a good week! I'll update when I can! (Now I've got to see if I can update from my cellphone...)**

**Love,**

**Lili**


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